Author Archives: woit

Russian Math-Physics Film News

Posted on October 27, 2015 by woit

I’m pressed for time, heading out tomorrow for a short vacation in San Francisco, but I did want to write a little bit here before leaving. Last year around now, a theme was Hollywood blockbuster films with physics/math themes, this … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

The Latest Information on Information

Posted on October 17, 2015 by woit

The field of hep-th has always been quite faddish, with many of the fads easily recognizable just from looking at the buzzwords appearing in paper titles. In recent years “entanglement” is a buzzword that has been all the rage, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments

Prizes and Other Stuff

Posted on October 15, 2015 by woit

There will be an awards ceremony November 8 for the 2016 Breakthrough Prizes, hosted by Seth MacFarlane, and airing live on the National Geographic Channel, later to run on FOX. The next day at Berkeley there will be a Breakthrough … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

This and That

Posted on October 7, 2015 by woit

The Perimeter Institute’s public lecture series tonight will feature Neil Turok on The Astonishing Simplicity of Everything. I think Turok is one of the few theorists speaking to the general public who has got the story of the current situation … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 28 Comments

Oddities

Posted on October 2, 2015 by woit

A few odd things that I’ve run into recently: The IAS has a weekly meeting to discuss current topics in HEP theory. From their events calendar, next week’s meeting will be devoted to “The Cosmological Constant and the String Landscape”, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 20 Comments

The Free Particle

Posted on September 29, 2015 by woit

Following on my notes about Euler’s formula, I’ve finally finished some work on another piece of elementary exposition, a discussion of the free quantum particle, which can be found as chapters 10, 11 and 12 of the book I’m working … Continue reading →

Posted in Quantum Mechanics | 19 Comments

Visions of Future Physics

Posted on September 22, 2015 by woit

There’s a great profile of Nima Arkani-Hamed by Natalie Wolchover just out at Quanta magazine, under the title Visions of Future Physics. I recently linked to another profile of him from the IAS, which covers some similar ground. He’s often … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 49 Comments

Connes on the Riemann Hypothesis

Posted on September 21, 2015 by woit

There’s a fascinating new preprint out from Alain Connes, called An essay on the Riemann Hypothesis, written for a volume on “Open Problems in Mathematics”. Evidently the late John Nash is an editor, and responsible for commissioning this piece. Connes … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Various and Sundry

Posted on September 14, 2015 by woit

The semester here is finally underway, and I’m getting back to work on my quantum mechanics and mathematics book (latest version available here). Current plan is to have a final version by next spring, with publication by Springer late next … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 63 Comments

This Week and Next Week’s Hype

Posted on September 3, 2015 by woit

This week’s hype comes to us from Discover Magazine, which has Is Our Universe One of Many? Here’s How We Can Find Out. Needless to say, the author doesn’t actually tell us how we can find out, just repeats the … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, This Week's Hype | 29 Comments