Author Archives: woit

What Math Do You Need For Physics?

Posted on November 17, 2016 by woit

Chad Orzel has a very sensible piece at Forbes, headlined What Math Do You Need For Physics? It Depends, which addresses the question of what math a physicist like him (experimental AMO physics) really needs. I’m glad to see that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 53 Comments

String theory might be about to finally be killed off

Posted on November 13, 2016 by woit

News site TechEye is reporting that String theory might be about to finally be killed off, with a story that starts off The world’s top boffins are debating finally killing off one of the more elegant scientific theories about the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 23 Comments

Entanglement, the Multiverse and the Universe

Posted on November 10, 2016 by woit

“Entanglement” is the current buzzword of physics, here are two new stories featuring this: Back in 2013 one could read lots of claims in the media that “Hard evidence for the multiverse” had been found, based on “effects of quantum … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 22 Comments

The Day After

Posted on November 9, 2016 by woit

The last few months have not been helpful for my sanity (and I think for that of a large number of other Americans). My three-point program to return to better mental health is to: Write one last blog post about … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Uncategorized | Comments Off on The Day After

Vote!

Posted on October 30, 2016 by woit

Normally I avoid politics here, but these are not normal times. What follows is a request to my US readers, followed by some general remarks about the disturbing state of US democracy. Sorry, but if you want to discuss any … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Various Links

Posted on October 27, 2016 by woit

The 2016 LHC proton-proton run is now over, with delivered (41.07 CMS/38.4 ATLAS) and recorded (37.82 CMS/35.5 ATLAS) luminosities (in inverse fb) far above the goal for this year of 25. Together with last year’s data, the experiments now have … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 16 Comments

Final Draft Version

Posted on October 24, 2016 by woit

I finally have finished a draft version of the book that I’ve been working on for the past four years or so. This version will remain freely available on my website here. The plan is to get professional illustrations done … Continue reading →

Posted in Quantum Theory: The Book | 31 Comments

A New 30 GeV Particle?

Posted on October 21, 2016 by woit

Last night a preprint appeared on the arXiv, with a re-analysis of old 1992-5 LEP data, looking at the dimuon spectrum for b-tagged (identified as involving a b-quark) events. An excess around 30 GeV was found, which would indicate a … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 25 Comments

Math Items

Posted on October 17, 2016 by woit

A few mathematics items: David Ben-Zvi’s overview talk about Representation Theory as Gauge Theory given last month at the Clay conference in Oxford that I attended is now available online, as slides and video. Other talks from the conference are … Continue reading →

Posted in Langlands, Uncategorized | 23 Comments

YITP at 50

Posted on October 11, 2016 by woit

The past couple days the YITP at Stony Brook has been celebrating its 50th birthday. It was started back in 1966 by C. N. Yang and has been an active center for theoretical physics ever since. The ITP at Stony … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 38 Comments