“What is the big deal about inertia?” complained Javier. Why don’t we just stick to the rarefaction idea for now and first see if we can measure it?”
“We can’t just go make a measurement like we are on vacation. It could take a year, or years unless we had mucho dinero and the fancy clock. What was it using?”
“Cesium.”
“Eso! So we need to build the theory, assume it’s true, and then figure out what does it mean. To see where it is consistent with everything else.”
“Okay, okay. You’re right. As usual. So tell me your concern about inertia again.”
“Gracias muchacho. Think about it. If the EMs are space, then an object in motion can pass through without slowing down. But if light is also waves in the sea of EMs, how can the waves act on the object? It’s as if space can push on you but you can’t push on it.”
“So maybe it’s two different things.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I know you prefer it to be simple but maybe it’s not so simple.”
“Maybe, but I can’t shake the feeling que es lo mismo.”
“Science isn’t about feelings. You need to explain it.”
“Okay.” Angel closed her eyes and looked down. They were at a picnic table outside the student union under the shade of the big oak trees on a perfect California September afternoon. Javier had just returned from his visit home to Buenos Aires and over the past week, since his return, he and Angel were inseparable.
“Okay, querida, walk me through it again.”
Angel looked up, eyes suddenly bright, projecting her love for possibly the only man that could understand her and still love her for it.
“Light is one problem but even bigger is gravity. Look how it can act on you? And same thing for the Milky Way. How can the flow of space speed up the systems and carry them along faster? But if you are out in space and you move, or even if you move on earth perpendicular to the ground, you don’t feel resistance.”
“I know I just said science is not about feelings, but my feeling is that it seems like two different things.”
“Maybe it is.”
“Or maybe it’s two different states. Like the equilibrium state and the, I don’t know, non-equilibrium state.”
“Okay but why is it behaving that way?”
Javi felt excitement flowing into him as he felt an idea coming into view. “Think about light and gravity. In both cases we say that the spacing between the EM’s is disturbed. What if that alone causes some kind of high energy state?”
Angel continued the concept. “If the EM’s are arranged in their normal way, no disturbance, then they don’t interact. But if the spacing is altered like a wave for light or stretched out for gravity, then it does interact. Javi, that’s brilliant. It makes sense. It even sounds like other theories I read on quantum fluctuation. You know, the energy of the quantum vacuum.”
“Exactly!” Javi broke out laughing he was so thrilled. Angel stood up and ran around to his side of the table to throw her arm around him. They knew it was still very sketchy but most of the thrill was just the pure joy they experienced from theorizing about physics. It was a shared passion that further amplified their passion for each other. Little did they know, that Angel’s feelings were actually the finest arbiters of true scientific understanding that humanity had ever known.
Miguel arrived at Angel’s home at seven sharp, just as he had committed. He was a punctual and organized person, more so than his favorite cousin, Angel, who now would have to face some difficult news. He was greeted by Lolita, who he always treated like a princess. She likewise viewed Miguel as her favorite relative.
“Tio! Exclaimed Lolita as she answered the door. They embraced.
“Girl! You got so much taller. And que linda!”
“Yo tio!” Shouted Severino from the kitchen table where he was pulling a corn husk from a large bowl of water.
“Hey, Sevy. Que anda? You just rolling tamales now? Hey man I can’t stay too long.”
“Calmate tio. I got you covered. These are extras for lunches and stuff.”
“Bueno. Where is your mama?”
“Ya viene. She is at the neighbor’s trying to borrow cerveza for you. She knows you want one, or two. But we ain’t got none.”
“Smart woman, your mother.” Miguel felt his stomach tighten with anxiety. Just then, Angel blasted through the door with a full six pack of Bohemia, one of Miguels’ favorites.
“Mira. Okay, let’s eat folks. Miguel only has about a half an hour. Right?” She looked to him for affirmation and he nodded with a faint smile. They sat down and enjoyed a short but joyful meal together, mainly talking about Sevy and Lolita and their teenage ups and downs. Miguel drained his second bottle and finally had the nerve to do what he had come to do.
“Bueno, guys your uncle’s gotta go. Bring it in.” They all stood and Sevy and Lola each got their hugs in. “How ‘bout you walk me out,” Miguel said to Angel and she smiled and followed him out to the small inner roadway of the mobile home park.
“What’s up cousin?” Asked Angel.
“Tomorrow they’re gonna let you go prima.” Miguel looked down sadly. Angel’s smile fell away as the words registered. “They goin’ to an outsource model and turn over a lot of the stuff to another company. So they told me about it because the new company wants me to stay on. But I’m the only one. I told them I want you to stay on as well. But they said no way. It really sucks ya know?”
It was like a gut punch. Angel felt as though the job was the one thing that was stable. She hadn’t screwed up after those earlier times. She was always on top of it, and even saving some college money for Sevy. A tear welled up as she felt fear stir deep within her. “It’s okay primo. I know you always look out for me, but sometimes shit happens. Don’t worry yourself about it. Now I got a track record at Stanford. I can get another job.”
Angel controlled her emotions as best she could, hoping to end the conversation as soon as possible so she could go inside and be alone. She wanted to go cry. “Miguel, it’s okay. Go home. I’ll call you tomorrow after they tell me. Thanks for giving me heads up. That’s better than getting a big surprise tomorrow.”
In fact, Angel stayed home sick the next day, and the day after. Miguel knew but he dared not call. Angel also wouldn’t take calls from Javi. She was busy thinking - not about work. She escaped into her own place. A place where there only existed quanta and the cosmos, where earth and humanity was temporarily set aside.
On the third workday, which was a Monday, Angel got up early, got her kids off to school, then sat down and took a deep breath. She didn’t get herself ready to go to work. Instead, she scanned through all of the text messages from Javi, most of which she had not yet read, knowing it would draw her in and compel her to call.
As she scanned through them, most of which were repetitive pleas, urging her to call or write, she came upon the last text he sent from the past Friday.
“I don’t know what’s up with you. Your office said you were sick so I didn’t want to just show up at your house.”
“But I have to tell you something. We lost NSF funding and now my post doc position is terminated because the research project is no longer funded. Now I’m screwed.” Angel just stared at the wall of her small living room, eyes and mouth wide open, trying to process the information. She quickly dialed him to share her own plight, hoping that a shared tragedy was more palatable. Mostly she was shocked by the coincidence of it. How weird, she thought. Later that morning, the two of them sat at their favorite table outside the student union.
“Querida, my uncle, the one I told you about, he runs the observatory in Tierra del Fuego. He’s actually the guy that inspired me to study physics. I have a job there anytime I’m ready.”
“It’s so far! We will never see each other again.”
“I disagree. In fact, without you this weekend, my mind was kind of blank and I thought about a lot of stuff. That city, where the observatory is located, it’s called Rio Grande. They even have an airport there. But the interesting thing is that this place is almost as far south as you can go, without going to Antarctica.”
“The experiment?” Angel smiled.
“Why not? We can’t go to Antarctica. And actually we want to be at around sixty degrees south. The farthest south we can get is about 55 degrees. The observatory is 54 degrees south. It’s the best we can do.”
“But we don’t have money, we don’t have a plan yet. I need you here. I think it’s a brilliant idea, but I was thinking this morning how you can stay longer. For me? I need a job immediately. I don’t have much saved and I got bills and a mortgage.”
“Yah. We both need jobs. But for me, there’s no way. My visa is tied to that post doc. If I’m out of Stanford, I’m out of Los Estados Unidos.”
“Your idea about your uncle’s observatory is great, and I think we gotta take advantage of that one for the experiment. But I also thought of some stuff on the way over.”
Angel and Javi walked across campus to the physics building and went inside. Javi seemed very tentative while Angel appeared confident and determined. They arrived outside of Roy Sussman’s office and as luck would have it, he was there, alone.
“I don’t know about this, Angel.”
“What have we got to lose?” Javi couldn’t argue with that. There was certainly no downside except for possibly a negative interaction with Sussman. Angel knocked on the closed door, which had a window allowing them to see in. If Sussman had simply looked up, he would have seen them, but instead, without moving a muscle to break his fixation on his computer screen, Angel and Javier heard his sharp reply from within.
“Come in!”
They walked in and he finally looked up. “Well, well! I wondered when you might find your way back here,” declared Sussman, even showing a hint of a smile. Angel was shocked. It had been nearly a year since she had braved the unknown and marched into his office. “So have you made any progress young lady?” Sussman inquired, seeming genuinely interested.
“Yes sir.”
“Well tell me about it. And young man, you are in the department, are you not?”
“Yes professor Sussman. It’s really great to meet you. I have attended some of your talks, all of them actually. I am Javier Camareno. I work for Dr. Singh.”
“Okay. So you know Ms., I’m sorry dear, I have forgotten your name.”
“Villasenor, call me Angel.”
“Angel. Right,” Sussman broke into a big smile. Angel was surprised and even thought he was being a bit creepy, so different than before.
“Yes, Angel and I are good friends. And we work on new ideas. I mean, informally.”
“Oh she’s got lots of ideas. Some of them even got me thinking about things I haven’t considered in years. In fact, I want to thank you for that Angel. I hope you have kept up your interest and learning.”
“Yes sir, I have. We were hoping to ask you some advice. If you don’t mind.”
“You caught me at a good time. I have a few minutes. Please.”
Two hours later, they were still in the thick of a rich discussion. Angel and Javi felt exhausted from having to articulate their thoughts clearly and intelligently, working their hardest not to sound foolish in the face of one of the world’s greatest physicists. Sussman looked up at the clock. Angel’s heart sank, thinking that Sussman would suddenly declare an end to the meeting and run off to satisfy some other pending obligation. Instead, he picked up the phone and made a call.
“Marjorie, can you get us three sandwiches? Thank you dear. Um bye.”
“Let’s continue. Tell me about the experiment. How will you measure the time?” Angel and Javier looked at each other and their unspoken thoughts were, here we go. Angel described her timing studies and calibrations and told Sussman that despite the crude appearance of such an approach, given a long enough time to measure, there could be an indication that would be compelling enough to warrant further measurement with more precise methods.
“I appreciate that you have limitations. I mean in terms of budget. But I wonder if it’s possible to detect anything, if in fact there really is anything to detect. If you measured for let’s say one year, and you have no indication, what will motivate you or anyone to try again?
“I am afraid of this scenario, but the timing devices so far can detect microseconds.”
“Microseconds per day? Per month? Per year? You are looking for a change. So you need to have a denominator.”
“Per second. Microseconds per second,” declared Angel with a deep sigh.
“Hmm. Well look.” Sussman started punching numbers into a large, desktop calculator. “Okay, one year is about 31 million seconds. Now the one microsecond per second, is that an average?”
“That’s five sigma. So if I have one year, and if the clocks differ by more than thirty seconds, then that is a difference based on five sigma probability.”
“Angel, I like your answer. You have clearly done the homework. The question still becomes, how precise is precise enough? I would hate to see you two go to all this trouble and get discouraged when in fact you actually have something here and you missed it.”
“We won’t get discouraged. We believe it,” declared Javier. “Sir, we wanted to know if it’s possible to get some funding for this experiment?” Angel was relieved that Javier broke the question.
“I don’t have funding for this. Did you ask Dr. Singh?”
“See, that’s the thing. He lost the grant money that funded my post doc. Now I’m out of a job. And as a foreigner, I will have to go back home. I thought maybe I can help because I can get cooperation from the Rio Grande observatory. But I don’t feel that we are quite ready and I want to stay longer to help Angel prepare.” Javi looked at Angel affectionately and she couldn’t hold back a smile. Sussman also caught the dynamic and sat silently for a moment, drumming his fingers, something he always did when he was about to do something remarkable.
“Javier. I do have a job for you, in my group. If you agree, I will talk to Singh. Since you would still be in the department, there would be no complication for you whatsoever. But I can only promise you six months.”
“Yes! Absolutely! Thank you Professor! I can’t believe it!”
“Javier, relax. Before you get too excited, let me talk to him. Let’s make sure this will work out.”
“Yes sir.” Javier reigned in his enthusiasm. Angel was holding his hand and smiling with delight. “Professor. Another thing. By sheer coincidence, Angel’s job in facilities was outsourced. Stanford laid off almost the whole department. Do you know of any opportunities?”
“You both lost your jobs at the same time? Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“No! Really! It’s just bad luck, at the same time. It’s strange, right?” Angel pondered.
“Well Angel. You walk and you talk like a physicist but unfortunately you still wouldn’t qualify for a position here. Besides, I only have this one position open at the moment. All I can do is think about it and get back to you. Fair enough?”
The incredible meeting finally ended more than three hours after it began. After they had said their goodbyes and Sussman closed the door to his office, he sat back in his chair. The phone rang. It was his wife, Naomi. “No darling. I don’t need a ride today. I will walk home. I need some fresh air.” After he hung up the phone, he buried his face in his hands and asked himself, am I going completely senile?
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