Author Archives: woit

LHC Roundup

Posted on September 4, 2008 by woit

The first attempt to circulate a beam in the LHC is still set for next Wednesday, and the media is already full of LHC stories, with a lot more to come next week. Events are being organized all over the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments

What’s Up With PAMELA?

Posted on September 2, 2008 by woit

There were some comments about this in a previous posting, but I thought it worth remarking on the unusual situation that papers have started to appear reproducing plots of new data from the PAMELA satellite, even though no such data … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

The Multiverse at Perimeter

Posted on September 2, 2008 by woit

This week, the Perimeter Institute is hosting a conference entitled A Debate in Cosmology – The Multiverse. Here’s the schedule, and talks have started to appear on-line here. Some of the speakers will be discussing the Many Worlds interpretation of … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 24 Comments

Yau Birthday Conference

Posted on August 30, 2008 by woit

There’s a conference at Harvard this week celebrating (somewhat early) the 60th birthday of the geometer Shing-Tung Yau. Since I was passing through Cambridge on the way back from a short vacation, I managed to catch a few of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 22 Comments

Boltzmann Brain Domination

Posted on August 30, 2008 by woit

A burning question in theoretical physics these days is that of whether Boltzmann Brains dominate the string theory anthropic landscape. It seems that to answer this question one must study the details of how BBs nucleate and how string vacua … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 17 Comments

Gross on Outlook for String Theory

Posted on August 22, 2008 by woit

David Gross just finished giving the closing talk at Strings 2008, on the outlook for string theory, following a talk by Hirosi Ooguri summarizing the conference. Strings 2009 will be in Rome next June, and it appears that there is … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 55 Comments

Freed on Chern-Simons

Posted on August 20, 2008 by woit

Dan Freed has a wonderful preprint out on the arXiv this evening, based on a talk he gave at the celebration of MSRI’s 25th anniversary, entitled Remarks on Chern-Simons Theory. It’s mainly about the current state of attempts to better … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Strings 2008

Posted on August 17, 2008 by woit

Strings 2008 starts tomorrow at CERN, with about 400 physicists in attendance. CERN will be providing a live webcast for the rest of us. The timetable of the talks is here. The first afternoon will be devoted not to string … Continue reading →

Posted in Strings 2XXX | 24 Comments

The Landscape at CERN

Posted on August 14, 2008 by woit

The current plan at CERN is to celebrate my birthday by trying to circulate the first beam around the LHC on September 10 (actually my birthday is September 11, but in recent years my family, like CERN, has tended to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Grothendieck’s Later Years

Posted on August 8, 2008 by woit

Alexander Grothendieck’s 80th birthday was this past March, and the September Notices of the AMS has several articles about his later years. There’s a long piece entitled Who is Grothendieck?, by Winfried Scharlau, who is writing a three-volume biography. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 24 Comments