Rahul Basu Memorial Award (2018-2020)

It is our great pleasure to declare the winners of the Rahul Basu Memorial award for the best theses in High Energy Physics in the period 2018-2020. 

Winners: 

Dr P.K. Resmi, IIT Madras,  

Thesis Title: Measurement of the CKM angle 𝜑3 from 𝐵± → 𝐷(𝐾s0𝜋+𝜋-𝜋0)𝐾± decays and future prospects. 

Dr. Manibrata Sen, TIFR, Mumbai 

Thesis title: New aspects of supernova neutrino flavour conversions: In the standard model and beyond. 

Honorable Mention: 

Dr. Chandrodoy Chattopadhyay, TIFR, Mumbai 

Thesis title: Entropy production and thermal fluctuations in higher- order dissipative hydrodynamics.

 Dr. Rafiqul Rahaman, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata 

Thesis title: Study of anomalous gauge boson self-couplings and the role of spin-1 polarizations.

 Dr. Suman Chatterjee, TIFR, Mumbai 

Thesis title: Jets as probes for precision measurements and candles for physics beyond standard model.

Congratulations to all. 

 

The award ceremony will be held as a part of the DAE symposium on High Energy Physics, 14th - 18th December, 2020 in online mode at National Institute of Science Education and Research.

 

Sincere thanks to the committee. (Bedanga Mohanty (Chair), Sunanda Bannerjee, Debashis Ghoshal, Sourendu Gupta, Rohini Godbole, Jim Libby, Sunil Mukhi, Seema Sharma)

 

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

Update: The award ceremony was held online at the DAE symposium held on line and hosted at NISER, Bhubaneswar on 18th December. The awardees and the honourable mentions summarized their work. A detailed account of the talks will come up soon.

Cyclone Nivar/ A.k.a a Cyclone in the time of Covid

Here we are in cyclone season again. Cyclone Nivar coming up, right now 410 km off the coast of Chennai. As if Covid wasn't bad enough! This one is likely to hit coastal Pondicherry rather than Chennai, although all bets are off when it comes to cyclone predictions. Here is the satellite picture right now.

By now we know how to manage during cyclones. Tamil Nadu is on red alert, although there is some possibility that it may hit Andhra instead. However, no neighbouring region will escape the heavy rainfall, consequent waterlogging, and the concomitant spreading of disease. While these happen every cyclone season, the coronavirus, and its unpredictable consequences, for a phenomenon which is in the first place unpredictable, is anybody's guess. Optimists among us hope that we will escape the worst case scenarios. Wish us luck. Post script: Our luck did hold, and we escaped the worst. We can now regard this with scientific detachment and carry out a network analysis of surface temperatures.Watch this space! This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

Perseverance and Ingenuity

The Mars rover Perseverance, and the Mars helicopter Ingenuity took off together on top of an Atlas V rocket a few days ago on 30th July. See video here .

This would have been major news in a pre-Covid world. Both Perseverance and Ingenuity incorporate major technology innovations. In particular, the helicopter Ingenuity would demonstrate the first powered flight on another planet, a feat equal to the first flight of the Wright brothers' Kitty Hawk. The helicopter had to be especially light weight (1.8kg) to lift off in the thin atmosphere  on Mars, 99 percent less dense than that of earth,  apart from the rigours of reaching, landing and deploying safely on Mars.  For this it has a double pair of light weight carbon rotors which spin in opposite directions at 2400 rpm, and is powered by solar batteries. While the helicopter is  a technology demonstration, it  will add another, aerial dimension (5 flights over 30 days) to the exploration of Mars.

Its flying companion Perseverance is no less. A worthy successor to the rovers Opportunity, which was operational for 14 years, and Curiosity, which is still fit and fine, Perseverance aims to look for preserved microbial life forms and characterize Martian climate and geology.

Meanwhile we survive life on earth, hell and high water, battle and strife, pestilence and disease. We hope to scrape through,  armed with the same two virtues, Perseverance and Ingenuity.

This blog post by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

See an earlier post

on the Marscopter for engineering details.

Valentina Tereshkova

Today, well yesterday to be more accurate,  is the 57th anniversary of the day (16/06/63  ) that Valentina Tereshkova, the first, as well as the youngest woman to undertake a space flight,   took off to space in  Vostok 6. The choice of a woman as a cosmonaut lay in the U.S/USSR rivalry, there was a bit of a 'let us send up a woman, before the Americans do', in the whole choice. And of course they made sure they chose a highly photogenic woman.  However, in the early days of space flight,   as now, whatever the reason for the choice, the cosmonaut, whose path to the  space program came out of her training as a parachutist,  had to undergo the gruelling training schedule,  and prove that she was fit to go up in space and handle her mission.  This Tereshkova did, with huge  success.

 Her post flight career was no let down either. She graduated from the Air Force Engineering Academy, became a cosmonaut instructor, retrained to rejoin the space program (although she never went back on a space flight)  and rose all the way to be a Major General in the Air Force. This was followed by a successful career as a politician, and still holds office at the age of 83.

Her personal life  started with a fairy tale wedding to the cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev, attended by Nikita Khruschev himself. Their daughter Elena might be the only person to have two cosmonauts as parents. Unfortunately,  the marriage did not last, unlike her second marriage to Yuli Shaposhnikov, a surgeon, which lasted till his death.

Tereshkova became a feminist icon, especially to women in STEM fields, and often  performed the duties of a science and technology ambassador for the  USSR. As the daughter of a war hero, and a mill worker,  and a textile mill worker herself in early life, her story was the quintessential story of a woman of the Soviet Union.  Her call sign Chaika (Sea Gull) was heard round the world. May the sea gull soar for many more years, and inspire many more by her life and example.

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and  Sumathi Rao.

A revolutionary story: A Plague and An Assassination

 

A major revolutionary story is associated with the Pune plague of 1896, the famous assassination of Rand, the plague commissioner of Pune, by the Chaphekar brothers, due to atrocities committed by British soldiers, during the enforcement of plague measures. Thankfully, no current day parallels.

A number of historic parallels have been pointed out between the current Covid 19 epidemic in Bombay and the Bombay plague of 1896 and 1897 (the third wave of the bubonic plague epidemic) .  This plague inevitably spilled  over to neighbouring Pune which was soon overwhelmed by the epidemic.  A Special Plague Committee chaired by Walter C  Rand, an ICS officer, was appointed to take care of epidemic measures, quarantine and containment. While the committee was directed that plague measures should be implemented with sensitivity to the population, respect for women, and regard  for property, the implementation was handed over to the British military which did not follow any of these injunctions. Stories from those days (reported by Gopala Krishna Gokhale, no less) speak of stripping of women, throwing of idols in devghars (corners of worship in private houses),  and manhandling of men, women and children, including sick folk.  Rasta Peth, an ancient locality of Pune, (still  a prominent locality), was a particular target. Tales of rape by British soldiers went around.

Enraged by these stories the Chaphekar brothers (some say Chapekar, after Chape near Pune),  Damodar  Hari, Balakrishna Hari, Vasudeo Hari decided to avenge these atrocities by assassinating Rand, the plague commissioner of Pune.  They formed a group that decided that the
Diamond  Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria  held at the Government House (now the Main Building of Pune University), on 22nd June 1897, was the occasion they would use, since Rand was sure to attend the celebrations.  Rand  and his military escort Lt. Ayers, in separate carriages, were returning from the celebrations and his nemesis was waiting on what is now  called the University Road.  Their look out gave a call as the carriages went by. Damodar shot the occupant the first carriage, Rand himself and Balakrishna shot the occupant of the second one, i.e. Ayerst (some accounts interchange who shot whom!). Ayerst died on the spot, Rand, a few days later on 3rd July.

Damodar and Balakrishna were arrested, though Balakrishna escaped later. Two members of the group, the Dravida brothers turned police informants, but were shot by the third brother Vasudeo near a  temple locally called the Khunya (murderous) Muralidhar temple.
All three brothers were eventually caught, tried, sentenced to death and hanged. Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote articles in his newspaper Kesari, defending the brothers, and was charged with sedition due to the articles.  There was an outpouring of public sentiment for the brothers, who were, and still are hailed as revolutionaries. A statue to them stands on the road, near the place where they shot Rand.
A postage stamp commemorates Damodar Chaphekar.

As of yesterday, there are Riot Police in Bhavani Peth, another old area of Pune, as well as in Sahakar Nagar.  In independent India, there can be no repeat of such incidents, we trust. Administrations are now far more sensitive to people, and  people are far more aware and  informed about what they should follow.  It is, however,  instructive to note that epidemics are still the same. The Kermack and McCormick model (1927), which is an  SIR model (susceptible, infected, recovered) fits the plague data (1905) and current models of Covid 19 have similar basic equations. Current day containment measures are exactly the same as the old ones, as pointed out in the link above, as the layouts of cities haven't changed. We hope the current crisis will lead to better ways of laying out cities and prevention and treatment of disease.

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

Tailpiece1:  The Rand assasination has contributed to one of Pune's many ghost stories. It is said that if you stand on  University Road near the place where Rand was shot, you  can hear horse drawn carriages go by at midnight. Our personal attempts at verification of this story have failed miserably.

Tailpiece2: The Khunya Muralidhar temple is called so, not for this murder. It has an even bloodier past. Did you think Pune was a peaceful place?

Tailpiece3: A relative of the Chaphekars has pointed out that the incidents here took place  around 50 years after  Pune went from Maratha rule to British rule. The anger still simmered.