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A Trip to Trim

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags , , , on July 3, 2025 by telescoper

This morning I took an impromptu trip to Trim, which is situated in the Boyne Valley in County Meath. There has been a small astrophysics workshop going on there this week, attended by some people I know including a couple of old friends from Nottingham, Frazer and Meghan. Trim is less than 30km from Maynooth as the crow flies. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a crow willing to offer me a lift, public transport from Maynooth to Trim is difficult, and I don’t drive, so it wasn’t easy to arrange to meet up. Fortunately this morning one of our postdocs was driving up for the morning session of the meeting so I cadged a lift and and stayed until lunch before getting a lift back to Maynooth.

It was a nice trip. An added bonus was that the workshop venue was just a few metres away from the historic Trim Castle, which was built in the early 13th Century. We had time for a quick walk around before leaving to return to Maynooth.

As you can see, it’s a standard model Norman castle. The Keep, though not entirely intact is pretty well preserved; there’s certainly a lot more left than in the case of Maynooth castle. Quite a lot of the curtain wall and the gates have survived quite well too. In order to get inside the Keep (and climb to the top) you have to take an official tour, but we didn’t have time for that.

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MSc in Theoretical Physics & Mathematics at Maynooth

Posted in Education, Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , on July 1, 2025 by telescoper

Today is Consultation Day here at Maynooth University and, in the course of being consulted, I was reminded that this period, being immediately after undergraduate final results are released to students, is a potentially a good time to advertise our local postgraduate course to prospective applicants.

I therefore decided o use the medium of this blog to advertise the fact that the MSc in Theoretical Physics & Mathematics at Maynooth University is open to applications for entry in September 2025.

This postgraduate course is run jointly between the Departments of Physics and Mathematics & Statistics, with each contributing about half the material. The duration is one calendar year (full-time) or two years (part-time) and consists of 90 credits in the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). This is split into 60 credits of taught material (split roughly 50-50 between Theoretical Physics and Mathematics) and a research project of 30 credits, supervised by a member of staff in a relevant area from either Department.

This course is a kind of follow-up to the existing undergraduate BSc Theoretical Physics & Mathematics at Maynooth, also run jointly. We think the postgraduate course will appeal to many of the students on that programme who wish to continue their education to postgraduate level, though applications are very welcome from suitably qualified candidates who did their first degree elsewhere.

You can register your interest by scanning the QR code above or, if you prefer, simply following the link here. You can apply directly to the postgraduate application portal here.

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The Mystery Mushroom

Posted in Maynooth with tags , , , , on July 1, 2025 by telescoper

I saw this on my way into work this morning. I wonder if anyone can identify it? I don’t know fungi.

My PictureThis app could only identify it as some form of Agaricus, i.e. one of the Agaricaceae. I know it has a fly on it, but that doesn’t mean it is Fly Agaricbut it has also been suggested to me that it might be Amanita Strobiliformis. I’m not convinced by either of these. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Update: a day later, it has evolved!

It’s now starting to look very much like it is indeed Macrolepiota Procera (the Parasol Mushroom), and it is now opening its parasol. I expect tomorrow it will be even flatter.

Update: it is indeed looking flatter, but not in the way I imagined. Somebody squished it.

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Back to the Office

Posted in Barcelona, Biographical, Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff on June 30, 2025 by telescoper

After a week away in Cork, I’m back in the office at Maynooth University. I have quite a lot of things to do before my next trip away which will be next week.

On Friday (27th) Maynooth students got their examination results. For this year’s finalists that means they also received news of their final degree classification. I’ve seen quite a few celebratory messages flying around on social media so let me add my own congratulations here: Congratulations!

We’ve had an outstanding group of students in Theoretical Physics this year and that is reflected in some excellent degree results. Well done to them all, and best wishes for the further studies on which many of them are about to embark.

Tomorrow (Tuesday 1st July), we have a consultation day during which students can ask about their examinations and request advice on next steps, including repeat examinations in August, the papers for which have to be readied for printing in the next two weeks.

Campus is quiet at this time of year, as most of the undergraduate students have left for the summer (or permanently for the graduands). A few will remain to do summer projects. The postgraduates are still around, of course. I have a Masters student doing their project this summer, from which I hope a paper will emerge, and a PhD student doing post-viva corrections to her thesis. I’ve also got a couple of other papers to finish.

I’m hearing a lot about sweltering temperatures across Europe. Fortunately it is more temperate here in Ireland, with maximum of 23 degrees forecast in Maynooth. All of this reminds me that it was a year ago today that I returned from a spell in Barcelona on sabbatical. As it happens, I met my hosts Licia and Raul at EAS last week. It seems things are going well at ICCUB. I would have stayed longer there, but my laptop had died which left me unable to work effectively. I’m looking forward to visiting there again next year for the 2026 Euclid Consortium meeting (if I can find the time).

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Primordial Black Holes in Cosmological Simulations

Posted in Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , on June 29, 2025 by telescoper

Being so busy for the last couple of weeks I omitted to engage in the gratuitous self-promotion that one would expect from a blogger, so I’m remedying that today by pointing out that I’m co-author of a new paper that is now on arXiv. This has already gained a bit of traction in the media, e.g. here.

Here is the abstract, which also shows the author list:

(I’ve just noticed that it says “The Netherland”, instead of “The Netherlands”. Oops!)

For those of you not in the field, there is currently a big mystery about how galaxies we have found at high redshift with JWST managed to acquire massive black holes so early in the Universe’s evolution. Black holes can grow quickly in a dense environment by accreting mass onto an initial seed, but what are the seeds? In this paper we investigate the possibility that they were primordial black holes. These form directly from fluctuations in the early Universe, as opposed to astrophysical black holes which form from stellar collapse. We don’t know exactly what mass primordial black holes would have nor how numerous they would be, but this paper uses high-resolution numerical experiments to investigate their effects if they do exist.

Here’s a pretty picture which is a zoom into 200 pc of the full simulation. I think 10pc counts as high resolution for a cosmological simulation! The blue circle shows the most massive PBH in the simulation, the green circle shows its nearest neighbour. The colour scale represents the number-density of dark matter particles.

For more details, read the paper!

P.S. This article has been submitted to the Open Journal of Astrophysics and is currently under review. As an author I am not involved in the editorial process.

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The 2025 Leaving Certificate Physics papers

Posted in Education, Maynooth with tags , , , on June 18, 2025 by telescoper

As I have already mentioned on this blog, examinations for the 2025 school Leaving Certificate are under way. One of the interesting things about the Irish system is that the examination papers are put up online immediately after the examinations so it’s very easy to share the content. I have already posted the two Mathematics papers for 2025. This year’s Physics examinations (at Ordinary and Higher level) took place this morning, so I thought I’d share the papers here. In particular, readers in the UK might be interested to compare the standard of these papers with that of current A-levels in Physics.

One thing I should mention is that Leaving Certificate Physics is not a prerequisite for entry into any of our Physics programmes at Maynooth University. Some do have it, but many don’t. We teach the first-year material from scratch for all students. Anyway, here are this years papers, Ordinary and Higher respectively. As usual comments are welcome, through the box below:

LC021GLP000EVDownload
LC021ALP000EVDownload

I think the Ordinary level paper could have done with better proof-reading. As well as Jim’s comment below, there is

Explain how your calculations can be used to verify the principle of conversation of
momentum.

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Maynooth University Library Cat Update

Posted in Maynooth with tags , , on June 16, 2025 by telescoper

It has been a nice day for Bloomsday, though I was forced to spend nearly all of it in my office on campus (including having a sandwich lunch there). Fortunately m’colleague Joost Slingerland sent me this picture of Maynooth University Library Cat basking in the warmth of the outdoors.

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Pride 2025

Posted in History, LGBTQ+, Maynooth with tags , , , , , , , , on June 13, 2025 by telescoper

It’s 13th June, which means it’s almost halfway through this year’s Pride Month. I’ve been so busy that I am very late in posting about Pride 2025. I usually post something to mark Pride Month on 1st June (e.g. here). In fact I hadn’t even noticed the Pride Progress Flag flying on Maynooth Campus (between the Arts Block and John Hume Building) until today. I didn’t see anything on Maynooth’s social media about Pride either. I didn’t see the flag yesterday when I left the Science Building and assumed it wasn’t there. It was however raining heavily so my view may have been obscured by the rain on my spectacles, so I went back today to check. I am relieved it is there, as we need such symbols now more than ever.

With its origins as a commemoration of the Stonewall Riots of 1969, Pride remains both a celebration and protest. It’s more necessary than ever now because of the sustained abuse being aimed at trans people from all quarters, including those in political power and those sad losers who have nothing better to do that spend all day tweeting their bigotry on social media. Bigots will always be bigots, but the lowest of the low are those that masquerade as some sort of progressive while spouting their hate and prejudice.

Someone asked me the other day whether we still needed Pride. I replied that I think Pride will be necessary for as long as there are people who are annoyed by its existence. As well as a celebration and a protest, Pride is an opportunity for us all to show solidarity against those who seek to divide us. Though many LGBTQIA+ people in many countries – even those that claim to be more liberal – still face discrimination, hostility and violence, Pride Month always reminds me of how far we’ve come in the past 50 years but also serves as a reminder that the rights we have won could so easily be taken away. As I get older, I find I have become more and more protective towards younger LGBTQ+ people. I don’t want them to have to put up with the crap that I did when I was their age.

Latest issue of GCN
list of patrons

To mark this year’s Pride I decided to become a patron of Gay Community News, a free magazine that is, I hope, a vital resource to for the Irish LGBTQ+ community. I hope to take part in the Dublin Pride March on 28th June too. More generally, I would like to wish all LGBTQIA+ people around the world, but especially staff and students at Maynooth University, a very enjoyable and inspiring Pride 2025!

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The Test Final and Final Examination Board

Posted in Cricket, Education, Maynooth with tags , , , , , , on June 12, 2025 by telescoper

Had I not been obliged to attend this morning’s final Examination Board for Theoretical Physics programmes at Maynooth University, I would have been at Lord’s today watching Day 2 of the World Test Cricket final between Australia and South Africam where it is now the Tea interval. There certainly wouldn’t have been any cricket in Maynooth this morning, as there has been torrential rain all day so far, but the Exam Board went ahead and finished even before South Africa were all out in their first innings for 138, after late-order collapse, in response to Australia’s first innings total of 212.

As I already mentioned, today’s Examination Board we went through the results in the presence of our External Examiner. Since this is the end of the academic year, we also looked at the final grades of those students who are completing their studies this year in order to consider the classification of their degrees. Another (pleasant) duty of our Examination Board was to award prizes for the best performance, not just for finalists but for students at every stage, including the first year. These will be announced in due course.

But that’s not quite the end of it – there is an overall University Examination Board that covers all courses in the University to formally bring an end to the examination process. It is not until after all the Boards have done their business that the students get their marks. If all goes to plan, students will receive their final marks on Friday 27th June.

Soon after that, on Tuesday 1st July, we have a Consultation Day, where

Staff will be available in all Departments to discuss results with students. Students are entitled to see their examination scripts if they wish, these will be generally available on this day or at another mutually convenient time.

If I had my way we would actually give all students their marked examination scripts back as a matter of routine. Obviously examination scripts have to go through a pretty strict quality assurance process involving the whole paraphernalia of examination boards (including External Examiners), so the scripts can’t be given back immediately but once that process is complete there doesn’t seem to me any reason why we shouldn’t give their work, together with any feedback written on it,  back to the students in its entirety. I have heard it argued that under the provisions of the Data Protection Act students have a legal right to see what’s written on the scripts – as that constitutes part of their student record – but I’m not making a legalistic point here. My point is purely educational, based on the benefit to the student’s learning experience.

That’s one set of examination duties done and dusted, but not everything. Next Tuesday I am Internal Examiner for a PhD at Maynooth and, about a month from now, I have to travel to a foreign land to be an External Examiner. It’s all go…

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Marking Over

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth with tags , on June 9, 2025 by telescoper

Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof…

I’ve just graded the last of my assignments for this (academic year). I had a bigger class than usual for Computational Physics this time round, so it took much longer than usual to mark the project component. It always takes a while because I not only have to read and grade the reports, but also look at the code they submit and run it to check that it works. I uploaded the final grades to our system just now and although I finished later than planned I was relieved to see that I’m not the last lecturer to do so!

What happens next is that all the marks from all the modules will be collated and cross-checked. Then we will have a meeting of the Departmental Examination Board (on Thursday morning) to go through the results in the presence of our External Examiner. Since this is the end of the academic year, we will also look at the final grades of those students who are completing their studies this year in order to consider the classification of their degrees. There may also be some who are not qualified to graduate and may have to repeat failed examinations or other assessments. Another (pleasant) duty of our Examination Board on Thursday will be to award prizes for the best performance, not just for finalists but for students at every stage, including the first year.

I was teaching a module for the Department of Engineering last Semester so I should attend their final Examination Board too. Many of our students at Maynooth take joint degrees, in which case their final degree classification depends on grades from two Departments. For that reason, there is an overall Examination Board at which the marks are combined. Fortunately, only the Head of Department (who is not me) has to attend that one.

If all goes to plan, students will receive their final marks on Friday 27th June. It’s a lengthy process so as to allow plenty of opportunities to check and validate the different stages. After that, on Tuesday 1st July, we have a consultation day at which students can ask for advice about repeat examinations, etc, and after that we have to make sure repeat examinations are available. The repeat examination period is Wednesday 6th August to Tuesday 19th August.

Between the end of this week and the repeat exams, perhaps I’ll get a bit of time to do some research…

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