When Sophia Varughese came to Princeton, she expected to major in economics and minor in music performance so that she could have a successful business career and then, maybe, eventually, pursue her love of French horn performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But then she fell in love with the wonders of the universe, and then jazz singing, and she had to admit that path might not be right after all.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past few years, I\u2019ve been trying to allow myself to love what I love,\u201d said Varughese, an astrophysical sciences major from Delray Beach, Florida\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 \u201csomething that you wake up every day excited to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her case, that\u2019s general relativity, especially its connections to black holes. And singing jazz with a smoky voice reminiscent of USO tours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During Varughese\u2019s first year at Princeton, she took \u201cBlack Holes,\u201d an astrophysics course taught by Eliot Quataert, Princeton\u2019s Charles A. Young Professor of Astronomy on the Class of 1897 Foundation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy eyes were opened in a way that they never had been before,\u201d Varughese said. \u201cLearning about black holes and being presented with the idea of general relativity \u2014 I was just so excited. I remember calling my mom and telling her what I was learning in class, and telling my friends, and realizing that I was more academically excited than I\u2019d ever been before.\u201d<\/p>\n
She especially loved studying under a professor who was himself a leader in the field, and who is, like so many Princeton scientists, actively expanding the sum of human knowledge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething so special about this science is that we don\u2019t know everything,\u201d Varughese said. \u201cIt\u2019s still an emerging field, and new things are being discovered every year. It felt so special to learn from someone who was also a student of the science, at the forefront of scientific discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
For her fall junior paper, she focused on gathering and analyzing data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, one of the world\u2019s largest astronomical surveys. \u00a0For her spring junior project, she discussed possible topics with Neta Bahcall, Princeton\u2019s Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy and the director of undergraduate studies for the Department of Astrophysical Sciences.\u00a0Bahcall suggested a project on black holes.<\/p>\n
When it was time to do her senior thesis, Varughese wanted to continue working with Bahcall\u00a0on the subject\u00a0that had first wooed her into astrophysics: black holes and relativity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSophia did an excellent job on a beautiful thesis,\u201d said Bahcall, who has spent more than 50 years at Princeton. \u201cShe not only explained black holes and how the theory of black holes came to be, but how the discoveries came, leading to what we know today. And then, how can we use black holes to test relativity?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a very interesting\u00a0topic,\u201d Bahcall continued. \u201cShe\u2019s not the first to suggest it, but she picked it up and developed it:\u00a0How can we test some alternatives to general relativity? What in black holes can provide us some clues?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very impressive for an undergraduate to think about\u00a0such topics,\u201d\u00a0Bahcall said. \u201cSophia is always so enthusiastic, about everything. She comes\u00a0to my office, and we talk, and the enthusiasm fills up the room.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the great majority of astrophysics theses involve observations, modeling and\u00a0simulations, Bahcall said, it is not uncommon for a student to choose a more discussion-based\u00a0theoretical\u00a0thesis, especially when the student is as excited about it as Varughese was.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething I always thought was so interesting about black holes is that, while we have observational evidence for them now, they are a solution to the equations of general relativity,\u201d Varughese said. \u201cThey were never even conceptualized before this theory came about.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEinstein published his theory of general relativity,\u201d she noted, \u201cand then\u00a0Karl\u00a0Schwarzschild solved one of his equations and arrived at this unique solution that there must be a way for a gravitational body to have such a strong gravitational force that not even light can escape.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then came the twist: \u201cWhen I learned about how black holes complicate and show the limits of general relativity, I realized there was a deep interaction between this theory and these astronomical bodies. I just couldn\u2019t believe that the science could work together in such a beautiful way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her other universe: jazz<\/p>\n
While many astrophysics majors continue on to graduate school in\u00a0astrophysics\u00a0or a related field, Varughese doubled down on music: she will head to the Manhattan School of Music in the fall to study jazz vocal performance.<\/p>\n
Though she came to Princeton as an instrumentalist, Varughese discovered singing here, and she has performed in three jazz ensembles and an a cappella group, as well as writing and editing for The Daily Princetonian.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe likes black holes, but her passion is for jazz music, and she\u00a0was accepted at\u00a0top music graduate schools,\u201d Bahcall said proudly. \u201cHer thesis is a very interesting combination of not just astronomy, but black holes, which are very theoretical, and general relativity, which is complicated, and she was really fascinated by that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd yet, she\u2019s also very musical, and she\u2019s going to be a professional musician. I think that\u2019s fabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Connections between music and science are as old as time, Bahcall noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Einstein, a talented violinist, famously said, \u201cIf I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bach was a mathematician as well as a composer and performer. Some 2,500 years ago, Pythagoras and Aristotle speculated that the sun, moon and planets move in specific orbits that create an inaudible, cosmic harmony that they called \u201cthe music of the spheres.\u201d<\/p>\n