Adrian Thompson
@gooble-gabble.bsky.social
Theoretical Particle Physics Postdoc
(Dark matter, neutrinos, and black holes)
Prog metal enjoyer hymnoptera.bandcamp.com
https://athompson-git.github.io/
(Dark matter, neutrinos, and black holes)
Prog metal enjoyer hymnoptera.bandcamp.com
https://athompson-git.github.io/
Caught this in Rogers Park!
November 12, 2025 at 4:53 AM
Caught this in Rogers Park!
Coffee and paper review
July 21, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Coffee and paper review
Toying around with some iNSPIRE API - trying to make a bubblemap of activity by subfield (counting papers with keyword in title by institution over the past 15 years)
July 17, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Toying around with some iNSPIRE API - trying to make a bubblemap of activity by subfield (counting papers with keyword in title by institution over the past 15 years)
Cool ocean science work on "biofouling" for the Pacific One Neutrino Experiment :) 🧪⚛️
arxiv.org/abs/2507.09086
arxiv.org/abs/2507.09086
July 15, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Cool ocean science work on "biofouling" for the Pacific One Neutrino Experiment :) 🧪⚛️
arxiv.org/abs/2507.09086
arxiv.org/abs/2507.09086
Just got back from a visit underground at SURF, where we also heard a little about SABRE. Reminds me of this t-shirt:
July 14, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Just got back from a visit underground at SURF, where we also heard a little about SABRE. Reminds me of this t-shirt:
A similar effect shows up in citation counts > 500. I've heard that committes don't necessarily impose hard cut-offs, but numbers obviously help to make your case. Perhaps the more optimistic thing I can draw from all this is that you don't need to hit these numbers to get shortlisted.
July 13, 2025 at 9:42 PM
A similar effect shows up in citation counts > 500. I've heard that committes don't necessarily impose hard cut-offs, but numbers obviously help to make your case. Perhaps the more optimistic thing I can draw from all this is that you don't need to hit these numbers to get shortlisted.
Less so is the bias for high paper counts, although no offers were made to candidates with N(papers) < 17
July 13, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Less so is the bias for high paper counts, although no offers were made to candidates with N(papers) < 17
Do metrics matter?
Some interesting statistics on faculty hires in hep-ph/th in the past two years, sourced from the rumor mill and inSPIRE data. For instance, there is a clear bias in offers to higher h-index ~ 15
Some interesting statistics on faculty hires in hep-ph/th in the past two years, sourced from the rumor mill and inSPIRE data. For instance, there is a clear bias in offers to higher h-index ~ 15
July 13, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Do metrics matter?
Some interesting statistics on faculty hires in hep-ph/th in the past two years, sourced from the rumor mill and inSPIRE data. For instance, there is a clear bias in offers to higher h-index ~ 15
Some interesting statistics on faculty hires in hep-ph/th in the past two years, sourced from the rumor mill and inSPIRE data. For instance, there is a clear bias in offers to higher h-index ~ 15
Fun paper I noticed last night by Chris Cappiello and Tansu Daylan :D
Can a Dark Inferno Melt Earth's Core?
arxiv.org/abs/2505.24070
Can a Dark Inferno Melt Earth's Core?
arxiv.org/abs/2505.24070
June 3, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Fun paper I noticed last night by Chris Cappiello and Tansu Daylan :D
Can a Dark Inferno Melt Earth's Core?
arxiv.org/abs/2505.24070
Can a Dark Inferno Melt Earth's Core?
arxiv.org/abs/2505.24070
While I'm happy to have a paper out tonight myself, I can't *not* read this one, excited to learn that the author is likely a skateboarder:
arxiv.org/pdf/2505.00099
arxiv.org/pdf/2505.00099
May 2, 2025 at 1:57 AM
While I'm happy to have a paper out tonight myself, I can't *not* read this one, excited to learn that the author is likely a skateboarder:
arxiv.org/pdf/2505.00099
arxiv.org/pdf/2505.00099
I just learned that our "big toes" in Hindi are expressed as the "foot's thumbs" (पैर का अंगूठा), amazing 😂
March 29, 2025 at 3:04 AM
I just learned that our "big toes" in Hindi are expressed as the "foot's thumbs" (पैर का अंगूठा), amazing 😂
LHCb paper on the first observation of CP violation in baryon decays, looks awesome!
arxiv.org/abs/2503.16954
arxiv.org/abs/2503.16954
March 24, 2025 at 3:05 PM
LHCb paper on the first observation of CP violation in baryon decays, looks awesome!
arxiv.org/abs/2503.16954
arxiv.org/abs/2503.16954
toying around with an idea:
athompson-git.github.io/experiments....
Keeping a searchable database of my table of past, current, and future experiments here, will be finishing it over the next few weeks. Might make it fancier if it's useful
athompson-git.github.io/experiments....
Keeping a searchable database of my table of past, current, and future experiments here, will be finishing it over the next few weeks. Might make it fancier if it's useful
February 18, 2025 at 2:41 PM
toying around with an idea:
athompson-git.github.io/experiments....
Keeping a searchable database of my table of past, current, and future experiments here, will be finishing it over the next few weeks. Might make it fancier if it's useful
athompson-git.github.io/experiments....
Keeping a searchable database of my table of past, current, and future experiments here, will be finishing it over the next few weeks. Might make it fancier if it's useful
Throwback to a fun read:
"The fluid dynamics of canine olfaction: unique nasal airflow patterns as an explanation of macrosmia"
Studied how the complex structure of dog nasal cavities create vortex flows of air that help odorant collection 🐶🧪 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
"The fluid dynamics of canine olfaction: unique nasal airflow patterns as an explanation of macrosmia"
Studied how the complex structure of dog nasal cavities create vortex flows of air that help odorant collection 🐶🧪 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
January 19, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Throwback to a fun read:
"The fluid dynamics of canine olfaction: unique nasal airflow patterns as an explanation of macrosmia"
Studied how the complex structure of dog nasal cavities create vortex flows of air that help odorant collection 🐶🧪 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
"The fluid dynamics of canine olfaction: unique nasal airflow patterns as an explanation of macrosmia"
Studied how the complex structure of dog nasal cavities create vortex flows of air that help odorant collection 🐶🧪 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Figure of the day: the Super Daisy
from "Effective potential and first-order phase transitions: Beyond leading order" Arnold, Espinoza '93 ⚛️
from "Effective potential and first-order phase transitions: Beyond leading order" Arnold, Espinoza '93 ⚛️
January 13, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Figure of the day: the Super Daisy
from "Effective potential and first-order phase transitions: Beyond leading order" Arnold, Espinoza '93 ⚛️
from "Effective potential and first-order phase transitions: Beyond leading order" Arnold, Espinoza '93 ⚛️
Last view of SF before heading back to Chicago
January 11, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Last view of SF before heading back to Chicago
Caught them both accidentally with a kestrel (I think Venus is hiding between the branches too!)
January 4, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Caught them both accidentally with a kestrel (I think Venus is hiding between the branches too!)
Fierz-Pauli gravity modifies the usual equations of motion with a mass term in a way that still respects Lorentz invariance, but there are lots of subtleties: broken diffeomorphism invariance, ghost modes from higher orders...I'll have to read more on this! They also study Lorentz-violating setups.
January 2, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Fierz-Pauli gravity modifies the usual equations of motion with a mass term in a way that still respects Lorentz invariance, but there are lots of subtleties: broken diffeomorphism invariance, ghost modes from higher orders...I'll have to read more on this! They also study Lorentz-violating setups.
First, this Higuchi bound is interesting. As I understand it, in dS spacetime with the cosmological constant Λ induces mixings between the massive graviton's new, longitudinal modes and the usual transverse-traceless mode. These mixings basically violate unitarity unless m^2 > 2 Λ / 3
January 2, 2025 at 6:47 AM
First, this Higuchi bound is interesting. As I understand it, in dS spacetime with the cosmological constant Λ induces mixings between the massive graviton's new, longitudinal modes and the usual transverse-traceless mode. These mixings basically violate unitarity unless m^2 > 2 Λ / 3
Here's a cool paper that's given me a glimpse into massive gravity ⚛️🧪:
arxiv.org/pdf/2412.14282
Blas, Carlton, McCabe study how adding a mass term to gravity, letting the graviton act as dark matter, could be detected by atom interferometers under various assumptions. Interesting subtleties...
arxiv.org/pdf/2412.14282
Blas, Carlton, McCabe study how adding a mass term to gravity, letting the graviton act as dark matter, could be detected by atom interferometers under various assumptions. Interesting subtleties...
January 2, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Here's a cool paper that's given me a glimpse into massive gravity ⚛️🧪:
arxiv.org/pdf/2412.14282
Blas, Carlton, McCabe study how adding a mass term to gravity, letting the graviton act as dark matter, could be detected by atom interferometers under various assumptions. Interesting subtleties...
arxiv.org/pdf/2412.14282
Blas, Carlton, McCabe study how adding a mass term to gravity, letting the graviton act as dark matter, could be detected by atom interferometers under various assumptions. Interesting subtleties...
idk what is happening in this paper, but I like it 🙂⚛️🧪
arxiv.org/pdf/2412.19709
arxiv.org/pdf/2412.19709
December 30, 2024 at 5:40 PM
idk what is happening in this paper, but I like it 🙂⚛️🧪
arxiv.org/pdf/2412.19709
arxiv.org/pdf/2412.19709
I found one like this in another old proceedings in the A&M library, don't remember which one but it has this style!
December 6, 2024 at 8:07 PM
I found one like this in another old proceedings in the A&M library, don't remember which one but it has this style!
By deviations from Einstein's gravity, they mean including higher derivatives of the Ricci scalar in the action. The argument, as I understand it, is that these terms could make the "Shapiro time delay" in graviton scattering negative, meaning causality is broken, constraining the phase space!
December 4, 2024 at 4:25 PM
By deviations from Einstein's gravity, they mean including higher derivatives of the Ricci scalar in the action. The argument, as I understand it, is that these terms could make the "Shapiro time delay" in graviton scattering negative, meaning causality is broken, constraining the phase space!
🧪⚛️ For fun, I've been going through this recent preprint (Kehagias, Riotto 2024): arxiv.org/pdf/2411.12428
"Can We Detect Deviations from Einstein’s Gravity in Black Hole Ringdowns?"
The answer per Hinchliffe’s Rule / Betteridge's law of headlines appears to be "No!"
"Can We Detect Deviations from Einstein’s Gravity in Black Hole Ringdowns?"
The answer per Hinchliffe’s Rule / Betteridge's law of headlines appears to be "No!"
December 4, 2024 at 4:25 PM
🧪⚛️ For fun, I've been going through this recent preprint (Kehagias, Riotto 2024): arxiv.org/pdf/2411.12428
"Can We Detect Deviations from Einstein’s Gravity in Black Hole Ringdowns?"
The answer per Hinchliffe’s Rule / Betteridge's law of headlines appears to be "No!"
"Can We Detect Deviations from Einstein’s Gravity in Black Hole Ringdowns?"
The answer per Hinchliffe’s Rule / Betteridge's law of headlines appears to be "No!"