gravitational wave

professor benjamin grinstein emailed dan and i two days ago, telling us that he has figured out a project for us to do

when a gravitational wave goes through an atom it should distort it. quantum mechanically this means that there is a probability that the atom will be excited, and one would be able to see the de-excitation as spectral emission. the same should be true of complicated molecules, but the emission may not be in the visible.

the idea is to first analyze this problem, compute the probability that the atom would be excited and then emit, and finally to asses the usefulness of this as a means of detection of gravitational waves.

this is beautiful; gravitational waves and excitation of atoms. i sense a lot of schrodinger's equations and mathematica calculations coming next quarter. i think i'm definitely dropping 120b, especially with this, and 15 hours worth of TA-ing next quarter. that way i can have more time focused on reading and LEARNING.

the fact is, you learn more when you're not graded on your work.