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Iranshah Udvada Utsav
HAMAZOR - ISSUE 1 2016 Dr Nergis Mavalvala Physicist Extraordinaire, p 43 C o n t e n t s 04 WZO Calendar of Events 05 Iranshah Udvada Utsav - vahishta bharucha 09 A Statement from Udvada Samast Anjuman 12 Rules governing use of the Prayer Hall - dinshaw tamboly 13 Various methods of Disposing the Dead 20 December 25 & the Birth of Mitra, Part 2 - k e eduljee 22 December 25 & the Birth of Jesus, Part 3 23 Its been a Blast! - sanaya master 26 A Perspective of the 6th WZYC - zarrah birdie 27 Return to Roots Programme - anushae parrakh 28 Princeton’s Great Persian Book of Kings - mahrukh cama 32 Firdowsi’s Sikandar - naheed malbari 34 Becoming my Mother’s Priest, an online documentary - sujata berry COVER 35 Mr Edulji Dinshaw, CIE - cyrus cowasjee Image of the Imperial 39 Eduljee Dinshaw Road Project Trust - mohammed rajpar Custom House & bust of Mr Edulji Dinshaw, CIE. & jameel yusuf which stands at Lady 43 Dr Nergis Mavalvala Dufferin Hospital. 44 Dr Marlene Kanga, AM - interview, kersi meher-homji PHOTOGRAPHS 48 Chatting with Ami Shroff - beyniaz edulji 50 Capturing Histories - review, freny manecksha Courtesy of individuals whose articles appear in 52 An Uncensored Life - review, zehra bharucha the magazine or as 55 A Whirlwind Book Tour - farida master mentioned 57 Dolly Dastoor & Dinshaw Tamboly - recipients of recognition WZO WEBSITE 58 Delhi Parsis at the turn of the 19C - shernaz italia 62 The Everlasting Flame International Programme www.w-z-o.org 1 Sponsored by World Zoroastrian Trust Funds M e m b e r s o f t h e M a n a g i -
A Glimpse at the LGBTQ Community Contribution to the STEM Fields by Valerie Etienne- Leveille
A glimpse at the LGBTQ community contribution to the STEM fields by Valerie Etienne- Leveille The acronym STEM identifies career disciplines associated with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields. Research has shown that LGBTQ individuals are more likely to report limited STEM career opportunities than their non-LGBTQ peers and the research shows that many LGBTQ STEM professionals leave the STEM disciplines due to harassment and devaluation of their professional expertise by their colleagues (1). The active recruitment and development of underrepresented individuals in STEM-related fields will provide society increased access to innovative ideas and creative solutions to challenging problems that will benefit the world (2). In this article two contemporary science contributors are showcased: Nergis Mavalvala and Ben Barres. Nergis Mavalvala Nergis was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1968 (3). She was born to a Parsi family and was raised in Karachi City, Pakistan where she received her early education at the Convent of Jesus and Mary school (4). She moved in her teenage years to the United States, and she attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics and Astronomy in 1990. As an undergraduate student, she co- authored a paper with her Physics professor and mentor in the Physical Review B: Condensed Matter publication (5). Nergis earned her Ph. D in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1997. She pursued post-doctoral research at the California Institute of Technology before joining the Physics faculty at MIT in 2002 (6). In addition to publishing more than 120 scientific papers, Nergis is well-known for her research on the detection of gravitational waves in the cosmos (7). -
Covariant Phase Space for Gravity with Boundaries: Metric Vs Tetrad Formulations
Covariant phase space for gravity with boundaries: metric vs tetrad formulations J. Fernando Barbero G.c,d Juan Margalef-Bentabola,c Valle Varob,c Eduardo J.S. Villaseñorb,c aInstitute for Gravitation and the Cosmos and Physics Department. Penn State University. PA 16802, USA. bDepartamento de Matemáticas, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Avda. de la Universidad 30, 28911 Leganés, Spain. cGrupo de Teorías de Campos y Física Estadística. Instituto Gregorio Millán (UC3M). Unidad Asociada al Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, CSIC, Madrid, Spain. dInstituto de Estructura de la Materia, CSIC, Serrano 123, 28006, Madrid, Spain E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract: We use covariant phase space methods to study the metric and tetrad formula- tions of General Relativity in a manifold with boundary and compare the results obtained in both approaches. Proving their equivalence has been a long-lasting problem that we solve here by using the cohomological approach provided by the relative bicomplex framework. This setting provides a clean and ambiguity-free way to describe the solution spaces and associated symplectic structures. We also compute several relevant charges in both schemes and show that they are equivalent, as expected. arXiv:2103.06362v2 [gr-qc] 14 Jun 2021 Contents I Introduction1 II The geometric arena2 II.1 M as a space-time2 II.2 From M-vector fields to F-vector fields3 II.3 CPS-Algorithm4 IIIGeneral Relativity in terms of metrics5 IV General relativity in terms of tetrads8 V Metric vs Tetrad formulation 13 V.1 Space of solutions 13 V.2 Presymplectic structures 14 VI Conclusions 15 A Ancillary material 16 A.1 Mathematical background 16 A.2 Some computations in the metric case 19 A.3 Some tetrad computations 21 Bibliography 22 I Introduction Space-time boundaries play a prominent role in classical and quantum General Relativity (GR). -
Pos(Rio De Janeiro 2012)002 † ∗ [email protected] Speaker
Loop Quantum Gravity and the Very Early Universe PoS(Rio de Janeiro 2012)002 Abhay Ashtekar∗† Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry, Physics Department, Penn State, University Park, PA 16802, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected] This brief overview is addressed to beginning researchers. It begins with a discussion of the distinguishing features of loop quantum gravity, then illustrates the type of issues that must be faced by any quantum gravity theory, and concludes with a brief summary of the status of these issues in loop quantum gravity. For concreteness the emphasis is on cosmology. Since several introductory as well as detailed reviews of loop quantum gravity are already available in the literature, the focus is on explaining the overall viewpoint and providing a short bibliography to introduce the interested reader to literature. 7th Conference Mathematical Methods in Physics - Londrina 2012, 16 to 20 April 2012 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ∗Speaker. †A footnote may follow. c Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Licence. http://pos.sissa.it/ Loop Quantum Gravity Abhay Ashtekar Loop quantum gravity (LQG) is a non-perturbative approach aimed at unifying general rela- tivity and quantum physics. Its distinguishing features are: i) Background independence, and, ii) Underlying unity of the mathematical framework used to describe gravity and the other three basic forces of nature. It is background independent in the sense that there are no background fields, not even a space-time metric. All fields —whether they represent matter constituents, or gauge fields that mediate fundamental forces between them, or space- time geometry itself— are treated on the same footing. -
BEYOND SPACE and TIME the Secret Network of the Universe: How Quantum Geometry Might Complete Einstein’S Dream
BEYOND SPACE AND TIME The secret network of the universe: How quantum geometry might complete Einstein’s dream By Rüdiger Vaas With the help of a few innocuous - albeit subtle and potent - equations, Abhay Ashtekar can escape the realm of ordinary space and time. The mathematics developed specifically for this purpose makes it possible to look behind the scenes of the apparent stage of all events - or better yet: to shed light on the very foundation of reality. What sounds like black magic, is actually incredibly hard physics. Were Albert Einstein alive today, it would have given him great pleasure. For the goal is to fulfil the big dream of a unified theory of gravity and the quantum world. With the new branch of science of quantum geometry, also called loop quantum gravity, Ashtekar has come close to fulfilling this dream - and tries thereby, in addition, to answer the ultimate questions of physics: the mysteries of the big bang and black holes. "On the Planck scale there is a precise, rich, and discrete structure,” says Ashtekar, professor of physics and Director of the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Pennsylvania State University. The Planck scale is the smallest possible length scale with units of the order of 10-33 centimeters. That is 20 orders of magnitude smaller than what the world’s best particle accelerators can detect. At this scale, Einstein’s theory of general relativity fails. Its subject is the connection between space, time, matter and energy. But on the Planck scale it gives unreasonable values - absurd infinities and singularities. -
View 2021 IWD Sponsorship Opportunities Packet
International Women’s Day CELEBRATION Friday, March 6, 2020 7:30 AM - 9:30 AM The Westin Boston Waterfront 425 Summer Street in Boston, MA 02210 www.iine.org/womensday Please join us to honor Marina Hatsopoulos Bornhorst A writer and technology entrepreneur, Marina Hatsopoulos is the daughter of immigrants, brought up in the U.S. and deeply connected to her Greek roots. She was the founding CEO and original investor in Z Corporation, an early market leader in 3D printing. Z Corporation’s success resulted in gaining thousands of customers worldwide including Sony, Fisher-Price, Adidas, Kodak, NASA, Harvard, and many others. Jackie Glenn Founder and CEO of Glenn Diversity and HR Solutions, Glenn began her career in the technology sector at the Fortune 500 EMC Corporation in human resources in the year 2000. Her first book, Lift As I Climb – An Immigrant Girl’s Journey Through Corporate America, is an instructional biography of how she employed her ten self-created gems to provide guidance through her journey from Jamaica as a nanny through to VP and CDO at Dell EMC, to an author and CEO. Nergis Mavalvala Nergis Mavalvala, an immigrant from Pakistan, is the Curtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics and the Associate Head of the Department of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A physicist whose research focuses on the detection of gravitational waves and quantum measurement science, she is a longtime member of the celebrated scientific team that announced in 2016 the first direct detection of gravitational waves from colliding black holes by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). -
LIGO and the MIT Kavli Institute
LIGO and the MIT Kavli Institute A significant activity of the MIT Kavli Institute is its involvement in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational‐wave Observatory, or LIGO, an initiative supported by the National Science Foundation to develop and exploit instruments to make direct observations of gravitational radiation. The LIGO Laboratory is a collaborative effort between the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Caltech has primary responsibility for the Laboratory under the terms of the Cooperative Agreement, and MIT is supported by subaward from Caltech. MIT is active in a range of activities, detailed below: The operation and refinement of the present detectors The search of the data for gravitational waves The development of Advanced LIGO, the second generation of instruments to be installed in the LIGO infrastructure The development of future techniques for quantum measurement, with a focus on applications to interferometric gravitational wave detection The MIT LIGO Laboratory The MIT LIGO Laboratory consists of roughly 30 staff and visitors; for comparison, there are ~120 persons at Caltech, and ~50 at each of the Hanford and Livingston observatory sites. At MIT the current demography is MIT Director David Shoemaker Physics Faculty Nergis Mavalvala; emeritus Rainer Weiss 2 Senior Research Scientists Peter Fritschel, Erik Katsavounidis 4 scientists 7 graduate students 6 mechanical engineers (focus: Advanced LIGO) 1 technician, 1 admin, 1 systems administrator 5 long and short‐term visitors LIGO‐T1000151‐v1 The MIT LIGO Lab is supported by LIGO Operations (~$2.8M in 2010), Advanced LIGO (~$1.5M in 2010), and a separate grant for Mavalvala on precision measurement (~$200k in 2010). -
Laudatio for Professor Abhay Ashtekar
Laudatio for Professor Abhay Ashtekar Professor Ashtekar is a remarkable ¯gure in the ¯eld of Ein- stein's gravity. This being the Einstein Year and, moreover, the World Year of Physics, one can hardly think of anyone more ¯tting to be honoured for his research and his achievements { achievements that have influenced the most varied aspects of gravitational theory in a profound way. Prof. Ashtekar is the Eberly Professor of Physics and the Di- rector of the Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Penn State University in the United States. His research in gravitational theory is notable for its breadth, covering quantum gravity and generalizations of quantum mechanics, but also clas- sical general relativity, the mathematical theory of black holes and gravitational waves. Our view of the world has undergone many revisions in the past, two of which, arguably the most revolutionary, were ini- tiated by Einstein in his annus mirabilis, 1905. For one thing, the theory of special relativity turned our notion of space and time on its ear for speeds approaching that of light. At the same time, Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric e®ect heralded the coming of quantum theory. Many of the best minds in theo- retical physics, including Einstein himself, have been trying for years to ¯nd a uni¯ed theory of relativity and quantum theory. Such a theory, often called quantum gravity, could, for example, provide an explanation for the initial moments of our universe just after the big bang. Especially noteworthy is Prof. Ashtekar's work on the canon- ical quantization of gravitation, which is based upon a reformu- lation of Einstein's ¯eld equations that Ashtekar presented 1986. -
MATTERS of GRAVITY, a Newsletter for the Gravity Community, Number 3
MATTERS OF GRAVITY Number 3 Spring 1994 Table of Contents Editorial ................................................... ................... 2 Correspondents ................................................... ............ 2 Gravity news: Open Letter to gravitational physicists, Beverly Berger ........................ 3 A Missouri relativist in King Gustav’s Court, Clifford Will .................... 6 Gary Horowitz wins the Xanthopoulos award, Abhay Ashtekar ................ 9 Research briefs: Gamma-ray bursts and their possible cosmological implications, Peter Meszaros 12 Current activity and results in laboratory gravity, Riley Newman ............. 15 Update on representations of quantum gravity, Donald Marolf ................ 19 Ligo project report: December 1993, Rochus E. Vogt ......................... 23 Dark matter or new gravity?, Richard Hammond ............................. 25 Conference Reports: Gravitational waves from coalescing compact binaries, Curt Cutler ........... 28 Mach’s principle: from Newton’s bucket to quantum gravity, Dieter Brill ..... 31 Cornelius Lanczos international centenary conference, David Brown .......... 33 Third Midwest relativity conference, David Garfinkle ......................... 36 arXiv:gr-qc/9402002v1 1 Feb 1994 Editor: Jorge Pullin Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802-6300 Fax: (814)863-9608 Phone (814)863-9597 Internet: [email protected] 1 Editorial Well, this newsletter is growing into its third year and third number with a lot of strength. In fact, maybe too much strength. Twelve articles and 37 (!) pages. In this number, apart from the ”traditional” research briefs and conference reports we also bring some news for the community, therefore starting to fulfill the original promise of bringing the gravity/relativity community closer together. As usual I am open to suggestions, criticisms and proposals for articles for the next issue, due September 1st. Many thanks to the authors and the correspondents who made this issue possible. -
Vibrating Membrane Puts a Squeeze on Light
Vibrating Membrane Puts a Squeeze on Light The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Citation Mavalvala, Nergis and Thomas Corbitt. "Vibrating Membrane Puts a Squeeze on Light." Physics 6, 95 (September 2013): dx.doi.org/10.1103/physics.6.95. © 2013 American Physical Society As Published http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/physics.6.95 Publisher American Physical Society (APS) Version Final published version Citable link https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128680 Terms of Use Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. Physics 6, 95 (2013) Viewpoint Vibrating Membrane Puts a Squeeze on Light Nergis Mavalvala Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA Thomas Corbitt Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University , Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA Published September 3, 2013 New ways of making low-noise beams of light could lead to more sensitive optical interferometry measurements. Subject Areas: Optics, Quantum Physics A Viewpoint on: Strong Optomechanical Squeezing of Light T. P. Purdy, P.-L. Yu, R. W. Peterson, N. S. Kampel, and C. A. Regal Physical Review X 3, 031012 2013 – Published September 3, 2013 The interaction between laser light and a mechanical the cost of greater uncertainty in the other quantity by oscillator, such as a movable mirror, can be used to con- an amount that ensures the product of the uncertainties trol light’s quantum properties for a number of applica- doesn’t violate the uncertainty principle. -
150 Abhay Ashtekar
ICTS PUBLIC LECTURE BIG BANG, BLACK HOLES AND GRAVITATIONAL WAVES Illustrations of Paradigm Shifts in Fundamental Science Big Bang, Black Holes and Gravitational Waves now appear as compelling – even obvious – consequences of general relativity. Therefore, it may seem surprising that none of these ideas were readily accepted. Not only was there considerable debate, but in fact leading figures were often arguing on what turned out to be the “wrong side” of history. These developments provide excellent lessons for younger researchers on how science un-folds. Paradigm shifts in science occur when younger researchers have the courage not to accept ideas merely because they are mainstream; patience to systematically develop novel avenues they deeply believe in; and maturity to accept that a variety of factors – not all logical or even science related – can drive or slow down scientific progress. ABHAY ASHTEKAR Pennsylvania State University Abhay Ashtekar is the Eberly Professor of Physics and the Director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Pennsylvania State University. His research interests span different aspects of General Relativity, Quantum Gravity and Black Holes. The recipient of the Einstein Prize and the Senior Research Prize of the Humboldt Foundation, his work is widely recognized. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences, Elected Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science, American Physical Society and Honorary Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, and has served as the president of International Society for General Relativity and Gravitation. 4 pm, 21 August, 2019 ICTS, Bengaluru Register online https://bit.ly/AbhayAshtekar BG Image – Frame from a simulation of the merger of two black holes and the resulting emission of gravitational radiation (colored fields). -
Books in Brief Early Leader, Swayed by the Mistaken Belief That Others’ Choices Tell Them About Standard
BOOKS & ARTS COMMENT observed differences in success — judged by popularity or sales, for example — follow from network effects. People rush to buy an Books in brief early leader, swayed by the mistaken belief that others’ choices tell them about standard. Quantum Space This results in huge differences in outcome Jim Baggott OXFORD UNIV. PRESS (2018) that have nothing at all to do with quality. Prolific physics writer Jim Baggott is back with a terrific page-turner That phenomenon is the subject of the second on loop quantum gravity (LQG) — the theory posited as a solution law: “Performance is bounded, but success is to that chasm in physics between quantum mechanics and the unbounded.” Take the top 100 wines entered general theory of relativity. Baggott digs into the how and why of into a competition. Their true differences in what LQG might reveal about “space, time and the universe”, tracing quality, for example in clarity or varietal char- its evolution through the work of Abhay Ashtekar, Lee Smolin, acter, are generally small: they’re all produced Carlo Rovelli and others, to its current implications for, say, the physics by top winemakers using similar technology. of black holes. Baggott masterfully tenderizes the scientific chewiness Yet one wine, because of the amplifying power and is careful not to over-egg what is, after all, a work in progress. of social networks, might enjoy orders of magnitude more sales than others. Social scientists have known about such The Republican Reversal effects for decades, although research by James Morton Turner and Andrew C. Isenberg HARVARD UNIV.