Author Archives: woit

Various and Sundry

Posted on February 27, 2012 by woit

Lots of people seem to be unhappy with my characterization of Lawrence Krauss’s question “why is there something rather than nothing?” as meaningless. I’m well aware that one can give this question a non-trivial meaning, I just don’t think Krauss … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 28 Comments

String Theory Skeptics and Multiverse Mania

Posted on February 21, 2012 by woit

My endless rants here about the hot field of multiverse studies are mainly motivated by concern about the effect this is having on particle theory. Multiverse scenarios all too often function as an excuse for not admitting that string theory/extra-dimensional … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 41 Comments

SUSY Still in Hiding

Posted on February 14, 2012 by woit

Recent rumors supposedly coming from theorists at Harvard indicating that today would be the day that an announcement would be made of first evidence for a superpartner of a top quark have just been shot down. The talk at CERN … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 57 Comments

Latest from the LHC

Posted on February 7, 2012 by woit

CMS and ATLAS have just released final versions of their Higgs analyses for the 2011 data (the new CMS gamma-gamma analysis was previously discussed here). The preliminary versions of these were what was released last December, and the final versions … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 6 Comments

The Langlands Program and Quantum Field Theory

Posted on February 1, 2012 by woit

Edward Frenkel is here this semester in the math department at Columbia, and he’s giving a series of lectures on a topic dear to my heart. Video of his lectures on The Langlands Program and Quantum Field Theory is starting … Continue reading →

Posted in Langlands | 7 Comments

Short Items

Posted on January 31, 2012 by woit

A few short items: No Higgs news on the LHC front, but on the BSM front today’s CERN talk Update on Searches for New Physics in CMS provides more evidence against the various exotic scenarios heavily advertised over the last … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 50 Comments

An Introduction to Group Therapy for Particle Physics

Posted on January 24, 2012 by woit

The latest CERN Courier book review section is out here. Besides a long review of Frank Close’s The Infinity Puzzle, there are some short reviews, including one for Stephen Heywood’s Symmetries and Conservation Laws in Particle Physics: An Introduction to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 20 Comments

Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Field Theory

Posted on January 17, 2012 by woit

The Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook is having a workshop this week on Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Field Theory. I was hoping to find time to go out there and hear some of the talks, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?

Posted on January 15, 2012 by woit

Science publishing impresario John Brockman’s Edge web-site each year runs a “Question of the year” feature, with short pieces from a wide range of people providing their answer to the question. The past few years I’ve passed on their invitation … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 45 Comments

This Week’s Rumor

Posted on January 10, 2012 by woit

The start of the LHC 2012 physics run is still a while off, scheduled for around the beginning of April, with beam energy likely raised a bit, to 8 TeV total in the center of mass. So, it’s going to … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 16 Comments