Bill Atkins

PhD in Gravitational Wave theory & Cosmology from Swansea University. I also play piano sometimes. 🏳️‍🌈

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

My third paper is now live!

Check it out here:
https://t.co/TgzRrX5he1

This was a technical one investigating the contribution of magnetic fields in the very early universe. If they were there, they should also generate gravitational waves!

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@0SLslSL @BBCNews I have taught WJEC myself (alongside all other exam boards, including international ones) for over 7 years, and sat it for both my GCSEs and A levels. Atleast in STEM, there's no major difference (in my opinion some of the WJEC units are harder!)

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@Cosolix Thank you thank you!! 😊

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

I passed my PhD defence!! 🎉🥳

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@shaumbook Oh wow, I had never seen this article before, thanks for sharing!!

This was a super interesting part of my life, and it definitely set me up with a lot of introspective skills I have used in my academic career. Notwithstanding the heroic efforts of my parents at that time!

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@inner_concerns @JMGreerWriter What observations?

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@ProBrawlhalla @Cehmz_ @Live_Jerrry @Spaceatronix Still play like that to this day!!

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@Cehmz_ @ProBrawlhalla @Live_Jerrry @Spaceatronix I actually still have that keyboard! I modified it with pegs and fit a guitar strap to it such that it always sat at the perfect height, it was unbelievably comfortable to play with!!

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@ProBrawlhalla I'm im this photo!!!

What a throwback 🤣 these were great times, still look back on them fondly.

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@entangledQbit @martinmbauer This is a nice visualisation of the plus polarization of linearized GWs, theory is sound and mostly what GW detectors can see (although doesn't hold in the strong GW limit where you get self interactions)

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@Addymestic Happy Birthday!! 😎

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@WhoIsSparky @DucXPham @whitesheepie I remember that Friendly Fire tournament!! 😱 we used to connect to the US servers with like 300ms and simply suffer

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@digital_sins @grok This is useful for learning more about the early universe.

If we discover evidence of primordial gravitational waves due to magnetic fields, it can help us learn about the inflationary mechanisms driving the Big Bang 😄

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

My third paper is now live!

Check it out here:
https://t.co/TgzRrX5he1

This was a technical one investigating the contribution of magnetic fields in the very early universe. If they were there, they should also generate gravitational waves!

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

We calculate the gravitational wave spectrum that would be emitted by these primordial magnetic fields for models of inflation beyond slow-roll and we find that experiments in the near future may be able to detect them!

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@realism_fan Having read some of your other responses, I recognise this conversation might not be fruitful.

Have a nice rest of your day 🙂

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@realism_fan The actual magnitude of the contamination is also small, so to ignore the precision of lcdm is to very much throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I think it's enough to say we should be careful performing parameter estimation with current datasets (which has always been true).

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@realism_fan Sorry, this is still the wrong interpetation of this. It is mostly agreed upon that lcdm will eventually fail, it's just a matter of how. This paper suggests the parameter space as seen by observation is contaminated, and makes no claim to the validity of the theories themselves.

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

Thesis writing is exhausting 🤕

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@yeroneem @eigenrobot Yeah absolutely! It's a whole brand new way of looking at the universe, incredibly exciting times to work in gravity! 😄

[Bill Atkins @BillAtkinss]

@yeroneem @eigenrobot Gravitational waves aren't just LIGO/VIRGO - their discovery has lead to huge insights into black hole perturbations, also new probes of cosmology, Gravitational theories beyond GR, and lead to the Stochastic Gravitational wave Background and related results