Author Archives: woit

Various and Sundry

Posted on March 5, 2014 by woit

It seems to be too early for April Fool’s day, and yet the arXiv has Dark Matter as a Trigger for Periodic Comet Impacts by Lisa Randall and Matt Reece, a preprint described as “Accepted by Physical Review Letters, 4 … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments

All Hail Resonaances

Posted on February 26, 2014 by woit

I’m delighted to see Jester back in action, providing great material on the current state of HEP physics, with, over the past week and a half: A sober look at the sparse prospects for near-term (i.e. 2014) input from experiment, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 19 Comments

Quantum Mechanics, The Theoretical Minimum

Posted on February 25, 2014 by woit

In recent years Leonard Susskind has been giving an excellent series of lectures on basic ideas of theoretical physics, under the title The Theoretical Minimum. The general idea seems to be to provide something in between the usual sort of … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 18 Comments

More Quick Links

Posted on February 24, 2014 by woit

First, a couple of examples of recent progress in mathematics Terry Tao has some new ideas about the Navier-Stokes equation. See his blog here, a paper here, and a story by Erica Klarreich at Quanta here. I’ve been hoping to … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

US HEP Theory Funding News

Posted on February 20, 2014 by woit

Laurence Yaffe has gathered some information about DOE funding of US HEP theory groups, showing sharp drops (average 23%) in such funding for groups reviewed in FY2013 and FY2014. These drops imply serious reductions in the numbers of theory graduate … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments

The Multiverse, Evidence and Theology

Posted on February 11, 2014 by woit

Yes, this multiverse business is tedious, but since it is becoming mainstream physics, with colloquium talks here at Columbia devoted to it, and the Columbia University Press publishing books about it, seems to me that someone at Columbia should be … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 62 Comments

More Links, Interesting and Tedious

Posted on February 5, 2014 by woit

First some links to interesting things: There’s a fascinating interview with Deligne in the latest AMS Notices. Alexandre Grothendieck: A Mathematical Portrait includes some great expository pieces about the mathematics developed by Grothendieck. There’s also available Grothendieck’s own Esquisse Thématique, … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 44 Comments

The Perfect Wave

Posted on February 4, 2014 by woit

Sometimes when I have come across claims of exotic phenomena at the far-out edge of the field of BSM physics based on branes and string theory (like time travel, or brane-world explanations of the bad OPERA result), my initial reaction … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 23 Comments

The Perfect Theory

Posted on February 2, 2014 by woit

Cosmologist Pedro Ferreira has a new book about to come out, entitled The Perfect Theory. The author accurately describes the book as a “biography of general relativity”, and it’s quite a good one, of the short and breezy variety (as … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 21 Comments

Quick Links

Posted on February 1, 2014 by woit

I’ve always thought more philosophers of science should be weighing in on the debate over “falsifiability” and the “demarcation problem” surrounding string theory and the multiverse (i.e. are these really science?). This is a complex and tricky subject that they … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 17 Comments