Author Archives: woit

Short Items

Posted on September 17, 2010 by woit

The Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee recently recommended that the Tevatron be kept running for an additional three years (until 2014). By the end of that time it should be able to accumulate a total of 20 fb-1 of data, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News, Langlands, Multiverse Mania, Not Even Wrong: The Book | 16 Comments

Hawking Gives Up

Posted on September 7, 2010 by woit

David Gross has in the past invoked the phrase “never, never, never give up”, attributed to Churchill, to describe his view about claims that one should give up on the traditional goals of fundamental physics in favor of anthropic arguments … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 83 Comments

Researchers Discover How to Conduct First Test of “Untestable” String Theory

Posted on September 1, 2010 by woit

A couple people this morning pointed me to today’s press release from Imperial College, headlined Researchers Discover How to Conduct First Test of “Untestable” String Theory and subtitled “New study suggests researchers can now test the ‘theory of everything’”. In … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 14 Comments

Everything is Emergent

Posted on August 26, 2010 by woit

During the past year Erik Verlinde has made a splash (most recently in the New York Times). with his claim that the reason we don’t understand gravity is that it is an emergent phenomenon, an “entropic force”. Now he and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 49 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on August 25, 2010 by woit

I’m rather busy these days with a move to a new apartment, but maybe there’s time for a quick edition of “This Week’s Hype”. A commenter on the previous posting points to Amanda Peet’s recent talk entitled String Theory for … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 17 Comments

Geometric Langlands at the KITP

Posted on August 17, 2010 by woit

There’s a very interesting program going on at the KITP discussing recent work of mathematical interest on 4d supersymmetric gauge theories (N=2 and N=4). These include various connections of 4d gauge theory to geometric Langlands uncovered by Witten and collaborators … Continue reading →

Posted in Langlands | 6 Comments

Gossip

Posted on August 17, 2010 by woit

As the date for announcement of the 2010 Fields Medals approaches, gossip about who the winners might be has been circulating. Math Overflow is by far the best internet site for authoritative discussion between knowledgeable mathematicians, but, unlike this site, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Hype or Not Hype?

Posted on August 6, 2010 by woit

The high point of my expertise in condensed matter physics was about thirty years ago, when I studied the subject in order to pass one of the general exams at Princeton. At the party after the test was graded, Phil … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 65 Comments

Short Items

Posted on August 4, 2010 by woit

There has been some recent progress on increasing the LHC luminosity. Recent physics fills have peak luminosities around 2.5 x 1030cm-2s-1, total integrated luminosity is above 500 nb-1, with a goal of getting to 1000 nb-1=1 pb-1 this week. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 26 Comments

Witten Talk and Interview

Posted on July 27, 2010 by woit

In conjunction with his receipt of the Newton Medal, Edward Witten gave a public talk in London (now available on-line here), and an interview (available as part of a pod-cast here). Witten’s talk was a rather polemical argument for string … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 25 Comments