Peter Denton
@jazzwhiz.bsky.social
Theoretical neutrino and astroparticle physicist Brookhaven Lab. He/him. Partnered. Thoughts my own.
Pinned
Peter Denton
@jazzwhiz.bsky.social
· Nov 15
Welcome to my bsky account.
I'm a neutrino physicist at Brookhaven Lab who also dabbles in dark matter, black holes, and ultralight boson stuff. I also like plants/bonsai, hiking, photography, piano, and the cat.
I'm a neutrino physicist at Brookhaven Lab who also dabbles in dark matter, black holes, and ultralight boson stuff. I also like plants/bonsai, hiking, photography, piano, and the cat.
Reposted by Peter Denton
NSF is open again!
A few comments:
*Please be patient.
During a shutdown NSF employees cannot open computers or respond to emails.
*Merit review will continue. However panels won’t resume until after Dec 8th.
*POs remain excited and committed to advancing science and the scientific workforce.
A few comments:
*Please be patient.
During a shutdown NSF employees cannot open computers or respond to emails.
*Merit review will continue. However panels won’t resume until after Dec 8th.
*POs remain excited and committed to advancing science and the scientific workforce.
November 13, 2025 at 5:58 PM
NSF is open again!
A few comments:
*Please be patient.
During a shutdown NSF employees cannot open computers or respond to emails.
*Merit review will continue. However panels won’t resume until after Dec 8th.
*POs remain excited and committed to advancing science and the scientific workforce.
A few comments:
*Please be patient.
During a shutdown NSF employees cannot open computers or respond to emails.
*Merit review will continue. However panels won’t resume until after Dec 8th.
*POs remain excited and committed to advancing science and the scientific workforce.
Reposted by Peter Denton
“I have decided that Feynman would have done what I did.. and I am therefore content.. no matter what..:)“
— Lawrence Krauss
🧪⚛️
— Lawrence Krauss
🧪⚛️
November 12, 2025 at 11:33 PM
“I have decided that Feynman would have done what I did.. and I am therefore content.. no matter what..:)“
— Lawrence Krauss
🧪⚛️
— Lawrence Krauss
🧪⚛️
Very cool result!
"the astronomers found that the initial blast of material was shaped like an olive"
www.eso.org/public/news/...
"the astronomers found that the initial blast of material was shaped like an olive"
www.eso.org/public/news/...
Unique shape of star’s explosion revealed just a day after detection
Swift observations with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have revealed the explosive death of a star just as the blast was breaking through the star’s surface. For ...
www.eso.org
November 12, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Very cool result!
"the astronomers found that the initial blast of material was shaped like an olive"
www.eso.org/public/news/...
"the astronomers found that the initial blast of material was shaped like an olive"
www.eso.org/public/news/...
I haven't wanted to use an em dash more in the last year or so — yet I keep on avoiding it so I'm not mistaken for an LLM.
November 10, 2025 at 10:33 PM
I haven't wanted to use an em dash more in the last year or so — yet I keep on avoiding it so I'm not mistaken for an LLM.
Peter's Acronym of the Day:
SEAL - A Symmetry EncourAging Loss for High Energy Physics
I have long held that taking vowels from the middle of words is an acronym crime
arxiv.org/abs/2511.01982
SEAL - A Symmetry EncourAging Loss for High Energy Physics
I have long held that taking vowels from the middle of words is an acronym crime
arxiv.org/abs/2511.01982
November 6, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Peter's Acronym of the Day:
SEAL - A Symmetry EncourAging Loss for High Energy Physics
I have long held that taking vowels from the middle of words is an acronym crime
arxiv.org/abs/2511.01982
SEAL - A Symmetry EncourAging Loss for High Energy Physics
I have long held that taking vowels from the middle of words is an acronym crime
arxiv.org/abs/2511.01982
Nice to see BNLs C2QA renewed
The DOE National Quantum Information Science Research Centers continue their mission.
www.energy.gov/articles/ene...
www.energy.gov/articles/ene...
Energy Department Announces $625 Million to Advance the Next Phase of National Quantum Information Science Research Centers
The U.S. Department of Energy today announced $625 million in funding to renew its five National Quantum Information Science Research Centers.
www.energy.gov
November 4, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Nice to see BNLs C2QA renewed
The maximum charge of my laptop's battery is down 75%, just like its user
October 31, 2025 at 7:08 PM
The maximum charge of my laptop's battery is down 75%, just like its user
The LHC is testing for high-lumi. They have a crossing with over 200 collisions and over 9000 tracks, jesus!
home.cern/news/news/ac...
home.cern/news/news/ac...
October 30, 2025 at 5:13 PM
The LHC is testing for high-lumi. They have a crossing with over 200 collisions and over 9000 tracks, jesus!
home.cern/news/news/ac...
home.cern/news/news/ac...
Paper day! 🧪🔭⚛️ arxiv.org/abs/2510.23713
"Glimpsing Physics of Nano-Hz Gravitational Waves in Neutrinos from Core-Collapse Supernovae"
Along with Hooman Davoudiasl and Anna Suliga (@aniafasolka.bsky.social) we realized that supernova recreate what NANOGrav might have seen.
1/4
"Glimpsing Physics of Nano-Hz Gravitational Waves in Neutrinos from Core-Collapse Supernovae"
Along with Hooman Davoudiasl and Anna Suliga (@aniafasolka.bsky.social) we realized that supernova recreate what NANOGrav might have seen.
1/4
October 29, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Paper day! 🧪🔭⚛️ arxiv.org/abs/2510.23713
"Glimpsing Physics of Nano-Hz Gravitational Waves in Neutrinos from Core-Collapse Supernovae"
Along with Hooman Davoudiasl and Anna Suliga (@aniafasolka.bsky.social) we realized that supernova recreate what NANOGrav might have seen.
1/4
"Glimpsing Physics of Nano-Hz Gravitational Waves in Neutrinos from Core-Collapse Supernovae"
Along with Hooman Davoudiasl and Anna Suliga (@aniafasolka.bsky.social) we realized that supernova recreate what NANOGrav might have seen.
1/4
LLM caution even for those who understand AI: neurosciencenews.com/ai-dunning-k...
October 29, 2025 at 1:28 PM
LLM caution even for those who understand AI: neurosciencenews.com/ai-dunning-k...
Can we agree to stop writing referee reports assuming the referees are men?
This seems like a real easy one everybody.
This seems like a real easy one everybody.
October 27, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Can we agree to stop writing referee reports assuming the referees are men?
This seems like a real easy one everybody.
This seems like a real easy one everybody.
RIP Peter Minkowski, the creator of the seesaw
October 27, 2025 at 11:31 AM
RIP Peter Minkowski, the creator of the seesaw
Reposted by Peter Denton
New: Researchers are broadly rejecting the Trump administration's compact. In faculty votes and student protests, they have mobilized to pressure their universities—to some effect: 6 of the original 9 universities have rejected the compact
With @alexwitze.bsky.social and @jennaahart.bsky.social:
With @alexwitze.bsky.social and @jennaahart.bsky.social:
How scientists are pushing back against Trump’s funding ‘deal’ for universities
Six institutions have so far rejected the administration’s list of demands over academic freedom concerns.
www.nature.com
October 20, 2025 at 4:36 PM
New: Researchers are broadly rejecting the Trump administration's compact. In faculty votes and student protests, they have mobilized to pressure their universities—to some effect: 6 of the original 9 universities have rejected the compact
With @alexwitze.bsky.social and @jennaahart.bsky.social:
With @alexwitze.bsky.social and @jennaahart.bsky.social:
Reposted by Peter Denton
🔊Announcing a new Physics/Astro PhD scholarship scheme in Edinburgh, for students from a Black heritage, inc mixed Black background. Please help me spread the word. The scholarship covers all tuition fees, living costs & research travel. #blackinSTEM 🔭👩🔬⚛️
ℹ️: www.ph.ed.ac.uk/studying/pos...
ℹ️: www.ph.ed.ac.uk/studying/pos...
October 20, 2025 at 3:52 PM
🔊Announcing a new Physics/Astro PhD scholarship scheme in Edinburgh, for students from a Black heritage, inc mixed Black background. Please help me spread the word. The scholarship covers all tuition fees, living costs & research travel. #blackinSTEM 🔭👩🔬⚛️
ℹ️: www.ph.ed.ac.uk/studying/pos...
ℹ️: www.ph.ed.ac.uk/studying/pos...
This plot goes pretty hard
I've spent three days now making a plot that would summarize the past 10 years of cosmic birefringence research
Different datasets with widely different systematics (astrophysical + instrumental) favor a positive and non-zero cosmic birefringence angle! Excited to fill in more colors in the future!
Different datasets with widely different systematics (astrophysical + instrumental) favor a positive and non-zero cosmic birefringence angle! Excited to fill in more colors in the future!
October 17, 2025 at 8:15 PM
This plot goes pretty hard
Peter's Acronym of the Day is about SUSY (which is also good, but not an acronym):
Sequestered Conformal Anomaly Mediation: SCAM
arxiv.org/abs/2510.11784
Decide for yourself what deeper underlying meaning the authors are suggesting.
Sequestered Conformal Anomaly Mediation: SCAM
arxiv.org/abs/2510.11784
Decide for yourself what deeper underlying meaning the authors are suggesting.
October 15, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Peter's Acronym of the Day is about SUSY (which is also good, but not an acronym):
Sequestered Conformal Anomaly Mediation: SCAM
arxiv.org/abs/2510.11784
Decide for yourself what deeper underlying meaning the authors are suggesting.
Sequestered Conformal Anomaly Mediation: SCAM
arxiv.org/abs/2510.11784
Decide for yourself what deeper underlying meaning the authors are suggesting.
This is a title for the ages, good work!
"Axion Quality Problem: Keep Calm and Baryon"
arxiv.org/abs/2510.07366
"Axion Quality Problem: Keep Calm and Baryon"
arxiv.org/abs/2510.07366
Axion Quality Problem: Keep Calm and Baryon
Axion models generically suffer from a severe quality problem when coupled to gravity. In this article we provide a very simple model with a high quality axion. The axion is a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone b...
arxiv.org
October 10, 2025 at 1:48 PM
This is a title for the ages, good work!
"Axion Quality Problem: Keep Calm and Baryon"
arxiv.org/abs/2510.07366
"Axion Quality Problem: Keep Calm and Baryon"
arxiv.org/abs/2510.07366
A local government website had a link to a map showing recycling centers that required me to log in for some reason. Contacted them, they fixed in a few hours on a Friday afternoon, and let me know.
Feels pretty damn nice when local government works.
Feels pretty damn nice when local government works.
September 26, 2025 at 7:37 PM
A local government website had a link to a map showing recycling centers that required me to log in for some reason. Contacted them, they fixed in a few hours on a Friday afternoon, and let me know.
Feels pretty damn nice when local government works.
Feels pretty damn nice when local government works.
With no public advanced warning, BNL director JoAnne Hewett has stepped down today.
I think she was a pretty good lab director, and everyone I knew was very excited to see a prominent female high energy theorist running a big lab.
The feeling is one of shock here today.
I think she was a pretty good lab director, and everyone I knew was very excited to see a prominent female high energy theorist running a big lab.
The feeling is one of shock here today.
September 23, 2025 at 5:54 PM
With no public advanced warning, BNL director JoAnne Hewett has stepped down today.
I think she was a pretty good lab director, and everyone I knew was very excited to see a prominent female high energy theorist running a big lab.
The feeling is one of shock here today.
I think she was a pretty good lab director, and everyone I knew was very excited to see a prominent female high energy theorist running a big lab.
The feeling is one of shock here today.
I'm sure that none of the actual report was hallucinated either.
Similar things keep happening in high energy physics too...
Similar things keep happening in high energy physics too...
September 12, 2025 at 8:10 PM
I'm sure that none of the actual report was hallucinated either.
Similar things keep happening in high energy physics too...
Similar things keep happening in high energy physics too...
What to do if a colleague out of the blue rewrote every sentence (100% of the paper) of a basically finished draft, clearly using ChatGPT?
September 8, 2025 at 9:02 PM
What to do if a colleague out of the blue rewrote every sentence (100% of the paper) of a basically finished draft, clearly using ChatGPT?
Reposted by Peter Denton
I'm sad to report that Rainer (Rai) Weiss passed away yesterday at age 92. Rai developed the design for LIGO, he and Kip got it funded, trained countless researchers, and received the 2017 Nobel Prize. Rai always had time for students and treated us as equals. May his memory be a blessing
August 26, 2025 at 6:21 PM
I'm sad to report that Rainer (Rai) Weiss passed away yesterday at age 92. Rai developed the design for LIGO, he and Kip got it funded, trained countless researchers, and received the 2017 Nobel Prize. Rai always had time for students and treated us as equals. May his memory be a blessing
I was driving around Long Island and saw a sign in front of one of many beautiful huge forests that said "11 Acres For Sale! Perfect For An AI Datacenter" and I almost puked in my car.
August 20, 2025 at 10:49 PM
I was driving around Long Island and saw a sign in front of one of many beautiful huge forests that said "11 Acres For Sale! Perfect For An AI Datacenter" and I almost puked in my car.