KRISTEN SCHUMACHER

Jessica Raley
for Illinois Physics

Illinois Physics graduate student and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow Kristen Schumacher did not grow up gazing at the stars and dreaming of unlocking their mysteries. She didn’t spend her free time taking her toys apart to see how they worked. She liked math and solving puzzles, but she didn’t know she wanted to be a physicist when she grew up. In fact, she didn’t know that was an option. 

Schumacher came to physics purely by chance. In high school, she was placed in AP Physics instead of AP Biology because of a scheduling error. She stayed in the class and—to her surprise—she loved it.

“I never would have discovered physics if I hadn’t accidentally taken that class in high school,” Schumacher says. “When I went to college, I signed up for a seminar called ‘Origins of the Universe.’ We read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time and we discussed big, open questions about the universe. That’s when I decided to major in physics. But I don’t think I would have signed up for the seminar if I hadn’t taken that AP class.”

While Schumacher serendipitously landed in the wrong class at the right time, she worries about the students who might never consider a career in physics because they aren’t exposed to those big, open questions. 

“If we want students to be interested in physics, we need to talk about the cutting-edge research and the open questions, because that’s what’s really exciting about it. Students shouldn’t have to wait for a college seminar to be exposed to the big ideas in physics today. We should teach that from a young age,” Schumacher says.

Now a graduate student in Illinois Physics Professor Nicolas Yunes’s group, Schumacher studies Einstein’s theory of general relativity (GR), as well as experimental tests of modified theories of gravity. 

“Even though Einstein’s theory has been incredibly successful—it has passed every test we have devised so far—there are good reasons to think it’s incomplete. Just as general relativity was an extension of Newtonian gravity, an extension to general relativity might be needed to make it compatible with quantum mechanics,” Schumacher explains.

One way to modify gravity is to remove one of the underlying assumptions of the theory. In particular, Einstein’s theory says that gravity is Lorentz invariant, which means that the outcome of an experiment is the same regardless of the frame of reference. The specific theory Schumacher studies—Einstein-æther theory—breaks Lorentz invariance.

Schumacher explains, “Einstein-æther theory is a very general  Lorentz-invariant theory of gravity, which makes it a good candidate to test GR. In my research, I use experimental data from LIGO to search for signatures of Einstein-æther theory in gravitational waves.

“When people ask me what I study, it can be hard to explain. A lot of people don’t really understand general relativity. So, if I say, ‘I’m studying theories beyond general relativity,’ that doesn’t mean anything. You have to be able to conceptualize general relativity first.” 

This realization became the inspiration for a new outreach program called Physics Outreach at Illinois through New Technologies (POINT). Schumacher plans to use virtual reality (VR) to help middle school and high school students engage with GR and gravitational waves.

“With VR, we could teach students in an immersive and interactive way how objects curve space-time and how other objects move in response to that curvature.”

Schumacher couldn’t find an existing VR simulation addressing specifically the curvature of space-time, so she and a team of volunteers are creating a new VR experience to fill that gap. 

“Our plan is to simulate the fabric of space-time by creating a grid that warps around objects,” she says. “Students will be able to play with objects of different masses to experience how they affect space-time differently. Once students understand space-time as a fabric, they can start to understand gravitational waves as ripples in that fabric.”

The work Schumacher is doing—in research and in outreach—is funded through a National Science Foundation Graduate Research fellowship, which she received in the spring of 2021. The award provides funding for three years, during which time Schumacher will not have teaching responsibilities. Still, Schumacher says she would not be able to do the project all on her own. She is building a team of volunteers with interests in physics education, VR, 
or coding. 

“This is a big project, and we need people with a lot of different skill sets. Some of our volunteers are interested in working directly with students. Others want to learn to code in Unity. Work is already underway, but we welcome anyone who is interested to reach out via email.”

Schumacher’s project is funded by the National Science Foundation National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. DGE–1746047. If you’d like to help Schumacher and her growing team with her GR and gravitational waves outreach project employing VR, the POINT organizers can be reached at phys-pointvr@illinois.edu.