![]() “A detection of primordial gravitational waves would constitute our most direct probe of the energy scale of the very early universe, and would transform our understanding of fundamental physics,” Dvorkin said. While researchers have made progress filtering out those foreground elements by using complex statistical methods, Dvorkin, undergraduates Sebastian Wagner-Carena ’18 and Max Hopkins ’18, and graduate student Ana Diaz Rivero hope to use newly developed learning algorithms to improve the process. “We have a potential sign coming from gravitational waves, but we have these galactic foregrounds … which have a signal that is very similar to the signal we are expecting to see.” “How do we know if a measurement is primordial?” Dvorkin asked. Foreground contamination from our own galaxy makes it difficult to isolate background signals. Making sense of the polarization patterns of the CMB, however, is easier said than done. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer ![]() By assessing the statistical properties of these fluctuations, we can infer the physics from the very early universe.” Cora Dvorkin presents her project on separating galactic foregrounds from primordial gravitational waves using machines learning techniques.“A detection of primordial gravitational waves would constitute our most direct probe of the energy scale of the very early universe, and would transform our understanding of fundamental physics,” Dvorkin said. What we measure in the sky with telescopes all over the world and satellites in space is the temperature fluctuations of photons in different positions. “Today, we detect the photons (that travel towards us freely since then) at microwave frequencies. “About 380,000 years after the Big Bang, protons and electrons combined to form hydrogen, in a process known as recombination,” Dvorkin said. If researchers can “read” those patterns, said Dvorkin, assistant professor of physics, it would offer an important window into the physics of the early universe. Those waves left telltale signatures in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background, or CMB, a radiation that permeates all of space. Cora DvorkinĪ fraction of a second after the Big Bang, the universe underwent a period of exponential expansion - known as inflation - that produced gravitational waves. Onnela - made short presentations about their work to a crowd in the Faculty Room of University Hall. Star-Friedman Challenge for Promising Scientific Research will double to include HMS, HSPH facultyĪs part of this year’s program, the researchers selected for awards - Cora Dvorkin Karine Gibbs, and Colleen Cavanaugh Peter Girguis and Aspen Reese Stein Jacobsen and Matthew Nock, Samuel Gershman, and J.P. ![]() ![]() Importantly, next year the Challenge’s ability to fund such projects will expand. They highlight that we take risks, and when we cross traditional boundaries the discoveries in one field can have a dramatic impact and change the course of other fields.” “The Challenge is important for the specific projects it is able to fund, but also because it tells the community what we stand for. “The Star Family Challenge provides innovative projects and new collaborations the chance to test if their ideas are going to work at the very beginning,” he said. “As a scientific community we aspire to take risks … What is needed to achieve those aspirations is often simply the means to begin.” “The Challenge sits at the center of who we are as a scientific community,” said Randy Buckner, professor of psychology and neuroscience and chairman of the faculty review committee that selects the projects. Star ’83, the annual Challenge funds high-risk, high-reward research that is unlikely to be funded through other programs - creative pursuits with the potential to contribute to radical new understandings of the world. Star Family Challenge backs big ideas in language, health, and astronomyĬreated by a gift from James A. ![]()
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