Monthly Archives: December 2012

East Coast versus West Coast

Posted on December 26, 2012 by woit

Back when I was a student I remember learning that there were two possible sign conventions to use for the Minkowski space metric: the “East coast” one, mostly + signs, favored by relativists and Steven Weinberg, and the “West coast” … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 35 Comments

Various Links

Posted on December 19, 2012 by woit

This week there’s a conference in Oxford I’d have loved to have been at. Slides from some of the talks are already posted here. The conference is in honor of Graeme Segal’s 70th birthday. Happy Birthday Graeme! Physics Today has … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 25 Comments

Quantum Mechanics Fall Class Lecture Notes

Posted on December 14, 2012 by woit

Classes are over for the semester, and I’ve put together the lecture notes for my undergraduate “Quantum Mechanics for Mathematicians” course, which are available here. The idea for the course was to try and explain the basics of quantum mechanics, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 38 Comments

Arkani-Hamed on Naturalness

Posted on December 13, 2012 by woit

For the latest SUSY enthusiast take on the implications of what the LHC has been (not) seeing, your best bet might be yesterday’s talk at the KITP by Nima Arkani-Hamed on Naturalness. An hour and 40 minutes, no slides, nothing … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 23 Comments

New Higgs Results Tomorrow?

Posted on December 12, 2012 by woit

As part of the CERN Council activities this week, there will be a session held with a live webcast tomorrow on Status of the LHC and Experiments. I’m hearing that there will be news about the Higgs from ATLAS: new … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 15 Comments

New Milner Prizes

Posted on December 10, 2012 by woit

The New York Times is reporting that tomorrow Yuri Milner will be announcing the award of a new set of prizes for fundamental physics work, this time including some experimentalists as recipients. The awards are $3 million for the experimental … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 57 Comments

First Results from the Large Hardon Collider

Posted on December 10, 2012 by woit

There’s a conference in Bad Honnef going on now entitled First Results from the LHC, with a website that carries two different interpretations of what “LHC” stands for (see the screenshot below): The talks are here. Yesterday CERN DG Rolf … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 6 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on December 10, 2012 by woit

Space.com has a new story entitled Space Bursts Provide Insight to Theory of Everything, which has been picked up elsewhere as “evidence for string theory”. For instance Physicists Find New Evidence Of A ‘Theory Of Everything’ In The Wreckage Of … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 2 Comments

Decay: The LHC Zombie Film

Posted on December 8, 2012 by woit

Today is the release date for the film Decay, described as “a zombie film made and set at the LHC, by physics PhD students”. It’s available for download here, on Youtube here. The plot is summarized as The film follows … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews | 7 Comments

Forty Years of String Theory

Posted on December 5, 2012 by woit

The journal Foundations of Physics has been promising a special issue on “Forty Years of String Theory: Reflecting on the Foundations” for quite a while now, with a contribution first appearing back when it really was 40 years since the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 31 Comments