Event Horizon

The Australian National University

Event Horizon

Research School of Physics

Weekly newsletter | vol 47 no 29 | 25–29 July 2022

Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back to the start of the new term.

Many of our community were present in person and on-line to remember Professor Bob Crompton at St John’s in Reid last Tuesday. With readings from his close and extended family it was a beautiful tribute to a man remembered for his generosity and commitment to friends, family and physics. A link to the recording of the service can be found in the last Event Horizon.

My congratulations to Em/Professor Eugene Gamaly on the publication of the second edition of his book, 'Femtosecond laser-matter interactions: Solid-plasma-solid transformations at the extreme energy density’ (this link provides details and a 20% discount). Over the past couple of years, I have become aware of several colleagues who have published significant books and I would like to host an event this year to celebrate their achievements. Please let me know if you are aware of any books published since 2019 that we could recognise in a special face-to-face event.

The ANUSA-affiliated undergraduate film club, Black Mountain Pictures, is requesting to use some of our spaces to film a music video on Saturday, 30th July. There will be a crew of around 5-6 people. I will be in attendance for the day and invite people to offer their lab space as background for this project. Any hazardous operations will have to be halted for the hour or two required, and I welcome company throughout the day. Please contact me by CoB Thursday if you’re interested.

I have reached out to Heads and Centre Directors about nominating projects for the Vidya and Chennupati Jagadish Scholars program run in conjunction with the College Future Research Talent (FRT) program. For the 2023 round, the College will provide funding for up to 8 Indian FRT scholars and 3 Indonesian FRT scholars, and the V&C Jagadish program will fund 5 scholars from any developing country to undertake research projects within RSPhys for 3 months. Please speak to your Heads and Centre Directors for details. All academic groups are welcome to apply. These are very talented students selected from some of the best institutions in their respective countries.

As part for the Below Zero Emissions program we are all being asked to consider our travel-related carbon footprint. These steps can be rather simple, for example, you might catch a bus to Sydney as the first stage of an international flight. The time commitment is not very different, buses are rarely delayed, and the carbon and cost saving is significant. As an initial step of recognising the global challenge please tick the pilot program in the Travel Plan section for your next trip.

A courtesy reminder with regards to personal or public notices. You are very welcome to use the tea rooms to distribute or post general notices of a public matter. The Event Horizon can also be used for public notices. Departmental poster boards have limited space and would be best reserved to display research work, conferences, scholarship notices or Centre announcements.

This week’s top pic shows Professors Bronwyn Fox (Chief Scientist, CSIRO) and Nanda Dasgupta (NPAA) on a site visit to the Heavy Ion Accelerator last Monday. It was a great pleasure to also show Bronwyn through the new building and discuss the new ANU-CSIRO MoU designed to enhance our engagement in quantum physics, space and technical workshops.

Below can be seen the early stages of dismantling our H1 Stellarator with our colleagues and new owners from University of South China. This collaboration has been initiated by A/Prof Cormac Corr (DMP) and Michael Blacksell (Head, Technical Workshops) over several years and will soon see the main components ship to China to start a new chapter in fusion research. As the facility represents one of the large engineering projects built entirely in Physics I will be opening the hall up for tours soon to see the internal sophistication one last time. Not since the system was assembled within the vacuum vessel over 20 years ago has it been possible to see the inner workings. I will keep you posted when these tours are about to run in the next few weeks.

Best regards,
Tim

The Latest on COVID-safe Work

The mask mandate is being maintained indoors on the ANU campus for semester 2. This applies in all teaching spaces and work areas.

The RAT and N95 mask distribution hub will re-open on Tuesday 26, Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 July between 10am - 2pm on Tangney Road in Kambri. Bring your ANU staff or student card with you.

How a Dark Matter Embrace Could Slow a Spinning Black Hole

Counting large black holes could help us find elusive dark matter particles, a new study led by the Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics has found.

Large black holes are formed when smaller ones collide – in dense regions of the universe this could happen multiple times. But if the colliding black holes are spinning fast then the new black hole could be kicked out of the dense area, preventing any further mergers.

But Dr Lilli Sun and her colleagues from CGA and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) realised in some scenarios dark matter clouds can form around fast spinning black holes. In the process the black holes lose their rotational energy and avoid ejection from the dense area.