Author Archives: woit

A Report From Mochizuki

Posted on March 25, 2024 by woit

I don’t really have time to write seriously about this, and there’s a very good argument that this is a topic anyone with any sense should be ignoring, but I just can’t resist linking to the latest in the abc … Continue reading →

Posted in abc Conjecture | 51 Comments

David Tong: Lectures on the Standard Model

Posted on March 22, 2024 by woit

David Tong has produced a series of very high quality lectures on theoretical physics over the years, available at his website here. Recently a new set of lectures has appeared, on the topic of the Standard Model. Skimming through these, … Continue reading →

Posted in Euclidean Twistor Unification, Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Abel Prize to Michel Talagrand

Posted on March 21, 2024 by woit

I was very pleased to hear yesterday that this year’s Abel Prize has been awarded to Michel Talagrand. For more about Talagrand and his mathematics, see the Abel site, Quanta, NYT, Nature and elsewhere. Also, see lots of reactions on … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

20 Years of Not Even Wrong

Posted on March 18, 2024 by woit

The first entry on this blog was 20 years ago yesterday, first substantive one was 20 years ago tomorrow (first one that drew attacks on me as an incompetent was two days later). Back when I started this up, blogging … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 73 Comments

Spring Course Notes

Posted on March 3, 2024 by woit

This spring I’ve been teaching a course aimed at math graduate students, starting with quantum mechanics and trying to get to an explanation of the Standard Model by the end of the semester. Course notes for the first half of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments

A New Approach to Modularity

Posted on February 28, 2024 by woit

I was assuming that Peter Scholze’s Emmy Noether lectures at the IAS would be the big news about advances in the Langlands program this coming week, but an anonymous correspondent just sent me this link. Tomorrow Andrew Wiles will be … Continue reading →

Posted in Langlands | 4 Comments

Three Items

Posted on February 27, 2024 by woit

Kind of like the last posting, but this time you get two worthwhile items to make up for one that’s not. Dan Garisto has a very good article here examining the present state of high energy experimental particle physics and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments

Two Items

Posted on February 14, 2024 by woit

If I’m going to point to something about string theory and say the same things as always about it, seems best to first start with the opposite, an item about something really worth reading. This spring I’ve been teaching a … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 14 Comments

Why physicists are rethinking the route to a theory of everything

Posted on February 7, 2024 by woit

New Scientist this week has a cover story I can strongly endorse, entitled Why physicists are rethinking the route to a theory of everything. It’s by journalist Michael Brooks, partly based on a long conversation we had a month or … Continue reading →

Posted in Euclidean Twistor Unification | 50 Comments

Arithmetic, Geometry and QFT news

Posted on February 5, 2024 by woit

This week at Harvard’s CMSA there’s a program on Arithmetic Quantum Field Theory that is starting up and will continue through March. There’s a series of introductory talks going on this week, by Minhyong Kim, Brian Williams, and David Ben-Zvi. … Continue reading →

Posted in Langlands | 10 Comments