Charlie Hoy and Lasse Schmieding win best student talk prizes at Britgrav 2019

We are delighted to award Charlie Hoy and Lasse Schmieding the CQG-sponsored best student talk prize, for their talks at the recent Britgrav 2019 conference, held at Durham University.

BritGrav (British Gravity Meeting) is an annual conference, based in the United Kingdom and Ireland, which covers the full range of gravitational physics. A particular aim of the meeting is to give graduate students and postdocs the opportunity to present their work. Classical and Quantum Gravity is the long-standing sponsor of the conference.

Charlie Hoy (left) and Lasse Schmieding

The judging panel* remarked on the particularly high standard of talks at this year’s meeting, and after much deliberation decided to give a joint award. Please see below for details of the winning talks.

The winners will each receive from CQG a £50 Amazon voucher and certificate. Congratulations again to Charlie and Lasse!

Ben Sheard, CQG Publisher

*Judging Panel:
Dr. Timothy Clifton, Queen Mary University of London
Prof. Atsushi Higushi, University of York
Dr. Baojiu Li, Durham University
Dr. Alex Peach, Durham University
Prof. Elizabeth Winstanley, University of Sheffield

Details of winning talks:

Charlie Hoy, Cardiff University
PhD supervisors: Professor Stephen Fairhurst and Professor Mark Hannam

Title of talk: Exploring the measurability of precession

Abstract: For binary black hole coalescences with spins misaligned with the total orbital angular momentum, the orbital plane of the binary precesses around the

Introducing CQG’s new Editor-in-Chief

I am very honored to assume the position of Editor-in-Chief of Classical and Quantum Gravity, following ten very successful years by Clifford Will.

Gabriela González, CQG’s new Editor-in-Chief, is a professor at Louisiana State University and a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration

During Cliff’s term, there were very exciting developments in the field, including precision cosmology, new astrophysics and discoveries of gravitational waves – and the journal was there to provide insight and quality articles. The journal has now 15 “renowned” papers with more than 500 citations (according to inspirehep.net), with half of those in the last 10 years, in topics ranging from “Holographic methods for condensed matter physics”, “Loop Quantum Cosmology”, to details of the LIGO and Virgo gravitational detectors and their discoveries. It is this diversity of topics which has made the journal a pillar of the community, thanks to the efforts of the Editor-in-Chief, the Editorial Board, and the excellent IOP editorial team (Adam Day, 2009-2017 and Holly Young until 2019). This is quantified in the journal impact factor, which is very competitive, as well as in the fast turn-around for reviewing and publishing.

There have been many changes in the last decade which have all helped this success: the introduction of focus sections (not just issues), brief review articles, reviewer awards, an open access policy, and an advisory panel, among others. Following the times, Classical and Quantum Gravity has a presence in social media, especially through this CQG+ blog, started by Adam Day.  The journal has also acquired a physical presence in many conferences in the field to keep in touch with latest developments, and sponsors two important awards for young scientists, the IOP Gravitational Physics Group Thesis prize and the ISGRG Bergmann–Wheeler Thesis Prize. The journal prides itself on having very diverse article authors, with diversity understood in the broadest sense: geography, gender, age, and expertise area among others.

I am very humbled to occupy a position that six eminent scientists held before (H. Nicolai, G. Gibbons, K. Stelle, M. MacCallum, R. Wald and C. Will), and will help the journal continue to grow and succeed in a rapidly evolving field. It is my goal to maintain the highest standards for the journal, as we broaden the range of articles – “gravity” is at the core of exciting theory and experiment with expanding frontiers at cosmologically large and small quantum scales.

Professor Gabriela González

Changes afoot

Happy New Year (is it too late to say that?) from the whole team here at Classical and Quantum Gravity and CQG+.

We’re starting the new year with an injection of fresh blood. Due to a bit of reshuffle at IOP Publishing, I (Holly) will be moving teams to work on our biophysics titles. As a result of this, Benjamin Sheard will be taking over as Publisher of CQG. Ben is already very familiar with CQG having worked on it for quite some time a couple of years ago, so his name might be familiar to you.

Out with the old, in with the new

You might also start seeing some new faces around these parts as a new editorial operations team takes over to manage CQG peer review, many CQG+ invitations and the journal mailbox.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported the journal and our little blog here. I’ve only been working on it for a couple of years, but it’s been an absolute pleasure to work with everyone I’ve encountered. A particular note of thanks goes to the CQG Editorial Board and our Guest Editors who have contributed so much to the journals’ success and made my job that much easier.

I know that all of you will welcome Ben (back) to the community, so be sure to stop by the IOP Publishing stand at your next conference and say hello!

Stay tuned for our next announcement … it’s a big one!

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Winner of the 2018 IOP Gravitational Physics Group (GPG) thesis prize: Dr Viraj A A Sanghai

Can you tell us a little bit about the work in your thesis?

One of the challenges of modern cosmology is to interpret observations in a consistent and model-independent way. There are several assumptions in interpreting cosmological/astrophysical data. For example, it is often assumed that Einstein’s theory of gravity is the correct theory of gravity. Furthermore, fundamental to cosmology is the assumption that the universe is homogeneous and isotropic on the largest scales and hence, this is the correct starting point to interpret cosmological data. To test these assumptions, approaches are needed, which work in a model-independent way. Broadly speaking, my thesis addresses these questions.

Thinking back, what was the most interesting thing that happened during your PhD?

Dr Viraj A A Sanghai is a postdoctoral fellow working on theoretical cosmology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada

The most interesting thing that happened during my PhD was the discovery of gravitational waves by LIGO, due to the merging of two black holes. This opened up a new avenue into testing Einstein’s theory of gravity and started the new field of gravitational wave astronomy. Before this, all our astronomical observations relied on electromagnetic radiation. This discovery is helping us to have a deeper understanding of our Universe. Consequently, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for this discovery.

Memories of Professor Stephen Hawking, 1942-2018

by Clifford Will, Editor-in-Chief, Classical and Quantum Gravity

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The gravitational physics community, indeed the whole world, mourns the passing on Wednesday 14th March, 2018, of Stephen Hawking at the age of 76. The Editor, Board and staff of CQG offer their heartfelt condolences to Stephen’s family. There are already numerous extended obituaries of Stephen, and I won’t attempt one here (see for example the fine obituaries by Dennis Overbye in the New York Times and by Roger Penrose in the Guardian).

I will, however, offer two personal remembrances of Stephen that I hope will illustrate his humorous side. In 1972, I was a student at the famous Les Houches Summer School on black holes, where Stephen, Brandon Carter and Jim Bardeen lectured and wrote the seminal paper “The Four Laws of Black Hole Mechanics”, that suggested a formal analogy with the laws of thermodynamics. This was soon followed by papers by Jacob Bekenstein and by Stephen that made this more than an analogy. But one of the things I most remember about the school was the awe-struck look on my eight-year-old daughter Betsy’s face watching Stephen in his wheelchair demonstrating how he could wiggle his ears like Dumbo the elephant.

The second remembrance was a visit to Cambridge in 1978, where Stephen had asked me to give a colloquium on tests of GR and invited me and my wife to join him and Jane at “high table” dinner at his college, Gonville and Caius. I showed up in a psychedelic paisley shirt with ridiculously wide collars, baby blue flared jeans, and high-heeled boots (think John Travolta in “Saturday Night Fever”, but with hippie length hair). This was attire totally inappropriate for high table (hey, this was the 70s and was the best I had in my suitcase), but Stephen was delighted to have somebody there who made the stuffy and decorum-obsessed masters of the college more uncomfortable than he did. And when, during the ritual passing of the after-dinner liqueurs along the table, the college master chided me sternly for allowing the port to precede the claret, I thought Stephen was going slide out of his wheelchair, hysterical with laughter.

We have lost a remarkable scientist and a unique human being.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

 

Surfing a wave to Stockholm

by Clifford M. Will, CQG Editor-in-Chief

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What a week for gravitational physics!   

First came the September 27th announcement of another detection of gravitational waves, this time by the three-detector network that included Virgo along with the two LIGO observatories. The source of the gravitational waves was another fairly massive black hole binary merger, with black holes of 30 and 26 solar masses. Once again, about 3 solar masses were converted to energy in a fraction of a second, leaving behind a 53 solar mass black hole spinning at about 70 percent of the maximum allowed. With  Virgo included in the detection, the localization of the source on the sky was improved dramatically over earlier detections by LIGO alone, dropping to a small blob on the sky measuring 60 square degrees, from the large, 1000 square degree banana-shaped regions of earlier detections.

For the first time, a test of gravitational-wave polarizations was carried out.  Because the arms of the two LIGO instruments are roughly parallel, they have very weak sensitivity to different polarization modes of the waves.  But with Virgo’s very different orientation, it was possible to show that the data favor the two spin-2 modes of general relativity over pure spin-0 or pure spin-1 modes.

But then, six days later came the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physics, awarding one half of the prize to Rainer Weiss of MIT and the other half shared between Kip Thorne and Barry Barish of Caltech, for decisive contributions to the detection of gravitational radiation. CQG congratulates the winners!

Interview with Daniela Saadeh: winner of the IOP Gravitational Physics Group (GPG) thesis prize

Daniela Saadeh – UCL Astrophysics Group

CQG is proud to sponsor the IOP Gravitational Physics Group (GPG) thesis prize. This year the prize was awarded to Daniela Saadeh, who we have interviewed below. Congratulations Daniela!

Can you tell us a little bit about the work in your thesis?

A fundamental assumption of the standard model of cosmology is that the large-scale Universe is isotropic – i.e. that its properties are independent of direction. Historically, this concept stemmed from the Copernican Principle, the philosophical statement that we do not occupy a ‘special’ place in the Universe. In physical terms, this idea is converted into the assumption that all positions and directions in the Universe are equivalent, so that no observer is ‘privileged’.

However, assumptions must be tested, especially foundational ones. General relativity – our standard theory of gravity – allows for many ways in which spacetime could be anisotropic: directional symmetry is not fundamentally required. If the Universe were indeed to be anisotropic, we would actually need to carefully revise our understanding (for instance, calculations about its history or content). Making this health check is very important!

So long, and thanks for all the manuscripts

Adam Day is the Publisher of Classical and Quantum Gravity

Years ago, I sat, somewhat nervously, in a small, dimly lit room in an old office block. I’d applied for a dream job and I was expecting to learn the outcome of that application. A senior member of staff tactfully began the meeting with some friendly small-talk that did absolutely nothing to calm my nerves.

I’d heard of CQG – even before I’d seen the job advert. Reputed for its high standards of peer-review, it also held the distinction of being the first physics journal on the web. Clearly, this was a journal for brilliant pioneers and innovators (submit here) and I wanted to be part of that. Furthermore, I’d enjoyed studying relativity as an undergraduate and had hoped to become a gravitational-wave researcher, so the science of CQG was already close to my heart.  I can’t even remember the colour of the walls in that old office, but I can still hear the words “I’d like to offer you the job” very clearly.

Looking back

Highlights of 2016 now free to read

By Clifford Will.

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Clifford Will is the Editor-in-Chief of Classical and Quantum Gravity, Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Florida, Chercheur Associé at the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, and James McDonnell Professor of Space Sciences Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis.

I am delighted to present the CQG Highlights of 2016 which are now free to read.  This prestigious annual collection is selected by the editorial board and includes notable papers on gravitational waves, black holes, general relativity, cosmology, quantum gravity and more.

As well as being free to read on the web, each paper is promoted by the journal in a number of campaigns.  Watch for the CQG Highlights brochure at your next conference.

CQG Highlights remains one of CQG’s most popular promotions.  Don’t miss your chance to be included in CQG Highlights of 2017 by publishing your next great paper in CQG.

 

 

Happy new year!

By Clifford Will.

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Clifford Will is the Editor-in-Chief of Classical and Quantum Gravity, Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Florida, Chercheur Associé at the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, and James McDonnell Professor of Space Sciences Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis.

What a year for gravitational physics!  In February, the LIGO and Virgo Collaborations (LVC) announced the first detection of gravitational waves.  The MICROSCOPE satellite test of the equivalence principle took to the skies in April and, in June, LISA Pathfinder surpassed all expectations in demonstrating the key technologies required to detect gravitational waves in space.  As if all that wasn’t enough, the LVC announced a second detection of a binary black hole merger later that month.  By September, NASA revealed that it would rejoin ESA in funding the LISA mission with a view to launching a 3-armed space interferometer by 2030.  Could we have wished for more?

CQG launched a focus issue on the topic of gravitational waves in 2016 edited by Peter Shawhan and Deirdre Shoemaker.  You can submit your next great paper on gravitational waves to the issue which is currently open to submissions and will be promoted in a number of channels throughout 2017.  All submissions will be subject to CQG’s usual high standard of peer review.

To keep track of the latest CQG publications and news in 2017, you can follow the CQG+ blog or follow the journal on social media (Twitter, Facebook).

I want to express my appreciation to all CQG authors, referees and readers who supported the journal in 2016.  I particularly wish to thank the journal’s Editorial Board Members and Advisory Panel Members who assist in directing the strategy of the journal and who oversee CQG’s peer review.  I also welcome new Board and Panel members to CQG. I look forward to working with all of you in the coming year.

With the LIGO detectors’ second observation run underway, I am certain that we have more to look forward to in 2017.