Yearly Archives: 2005

LHC Startup Scenarios

Posted on April 25, 2005 by woit

Everyone in the particle physics community is avidly awaiting the startup of the LHC accelerator at CERN, scheduled for 2007. A new preprint by Gianotti and Mangano entitled LHC physics: the first one–two year(s) gives some idea of what to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Taking a Break

Posted on April 22, 2005 by woit

This week I’m quite busy so I’m taking a break from landscape-bashing. Instead I’ll just quote someone else; it’s up to you to guess who. “Suddenly it’s not too important whether a theory teaches us something new about the real … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 33 Comments

Conferences Not To Go To

Posted on April 18, 2005 by woit

This week in Santa Fe there’s the International Conference on Science and Consciousness, where Michio Kaku will be giving a keynote address. He’ll explain how “Many physicists today believe in the multiverse, i.e. Genesis is constantly taking place in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 59 Comments

Dine on the Landscape

Posted on April 13, 2005 by woit

Michael Dine from Santa Cruz was here at Columbia this afternoon to give a talk on “Branches of the Landscape”. His talk more or less corresponded to his recent paper with the same title. He’s following the philosophy pioneered by … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 47 Comments

New Quantum Field Theory Textbook

Posted on April 12, 2005 by woit

I recently ran across a very good new quantum field theory textbook in the bookstore. It’s called Quantum Field Theory: A Modern Perspective and is by my ex-Columbia colleague V. Parameswaran Nair, who is now at City College nearby. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 24 Comments

This Evening’s Finds in Theoretical Physics

Posted on April 10, 2005 by woit

It’s late tonight and I have to prepare a class for tomorrow, so I don’t have time now to figure out what is going on here. But if you want to see something really strange, take a look at Susskind’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Not a Joke

Posted on April 7, 2005 by woit

A week or so ago I wrote up as an April Fool’s joke a posting claiming that the Stanford theoretical physics group was joining a new Templeton foundation devoted to religion and science. At the time I had no idea … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Uncategorized | 45 Comments

High Energy Physics: Exit America?

Posted on April 6, 2005 by woit

Science magazine has an article this week entitled High Energy Physics: Exit America?. It describes the US HEP budget situation, and gives details of the probable cancellation of the BTeV experiment. Evidently neither Michael Witherell, the Fermilab director, nor any … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments

Witten in Canada

Posted on April 4, 2005 by woit

Edward Witten is in Canada this week, giving a series of lectures at the Fields Institute, the mathematics institute at the University of Toronto. He’s also giving a public lecture at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo. The first of his … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments

New Institute at Stanford

Posted on April 1, 2005 by woit

Stanford University will officially announce later today the founding of a new research institute, with major funding from the John Templeton Foundation. Many of the faculty and research staff of the new institute will come from the present Institute for … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 36 Comments