Yearly Archives: 2009

BRST and Dirac Cohomology

Posted on July 11, 2009 by woit

For the last couple years I’ve been working on the idea of using what mathematicians call “Dirac Cohomology” to replace the standard BRST formalism for handling gauge symmetries. So far this is just in a toy model: gauge theory in … Continue reading →

Posted in BRST | 16 Comments

Various and Sundry

Posted on July 10, 2009 by woit

For the latest on the status of the LHC, see the July 2 talk of Steve Myers mentioned here earlier, and a July 8 talk (slides, video) that has some more recent news. The question of what to do about … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News, Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 18 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on July 7, 2009 by woit

A Leiden University press release headlined Physical Reality of String Theory Demonstrated is being picked up and used to generate news stories in the media. It starts off: String theory has come under fire in recent years. Promises have been … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 25 Comments

LHC Status

Posted on July 1, 2009 by woit

If you want to keep up with the latest news on the LHC status, tomorrow at 3pm Geneva time there will be a webcast of a talk by Steve Myers. The abstract reads: The status of the LHC will be … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Conferences

Posted on June 29, 2009 by woit

In a couple days I’ll be leaving for a week-long trip to Riga and St. Petersburg. I’ll be in St. Petersburg from July 5-8, and will give a talk on BRST and Dirac Cohomology at a conference there. I’m finishing … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 16 Comments

Strings 2009 Out of Juice?

Posted on June 23, 2009 by woit

I had a suspicion that Strings 2009 wasn’t going to be scientifically very active, since not much has been going on in that field recently, but I still found it surprising how little news from the conference was making its … Continue reading →

Posted in Strings 2XXX | 33 Comments

Gina Says

Posted on June 23, 2009 by woit

At the height of the string wars a couple years ago, one of the participants was a mysterious anonymous commenter going under the name “Gina”. Earlier this year Gil Kalai wrote to me to reveal that he was the person … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 30 Comments

Templeton Foundation Strategy and Planning

Posted on June 22, 2009 by woit

Most physicists are rather dubious about whether “multiverse” research is deserving of any support since it’s not clear that it is even science. Because of this, such research has been finding financial support in recent years not from conventional sources … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 31 Comments

Manufacturing universes in a fractal multiverse

Posted on June 21, 2009 by woit

I gather that the World Science Festival here in New York a week or so ago was a great success, although I was out of town for most of it. The one part of the program I was dubious about … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 10 Comments

News from CERN, Witten Interview

Posted on June 18, 2009 by woit

The new CERN Bulletin is available, and it contains a link to a recent video interview of Witten, who has been visiting CERN during the past year. Some other things in this issue: Bill Gates recently visited the LHC, bringing … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 4 Comments