Monthly Archives: July 2021

Some Math Items

Posted on July 30, 2021 by woit

Some math items that may be of interest: Zentralblatt Math has a review of Mochizuki’s IUT papers, by Peter Scholze. Scholze explains the problem with the proof claimed in these papers. For more details, see his manuscript with Stix, or … Continue reading →

Posted in abc Conjecture, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

More of the Same (Physics, Math and Unification)

Posted on July 29, 2021 by woit

I was going to just provide the following links with a some comments, but decided it would be a good idea to put them into what seems to me the larger context of where we are in fundamental physics and … Continue reading →

Posted in Euclidean Twistor Unification, Langlands | Comments Off on More of the Same (Physics, Math and Unification)

Steven Weinberg 1933-2021

Posted on July 24, 2021 by woit

I heard this morning the news that Steven Weinberg passed away yesterday at the age of 88.  He was arguably the dominant figure in theoretical particle physics during its period of great success from the late sixties to the early … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 18 Comments

The Problem of Quantization

Posted on July 12, 2021 by woit

I’ve been watching Witten’s ongoing talks about geometric Langlands mentioned here, and wanted to recommend to everyone, mathematician or physicist, the first of them, on The Problem of Quantization (pdf here, video here, the question session is very worthwhile). For … Continue reading →

Posted in Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Theory: The Book, Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Deterioration of the World’s Thinking About the Deepest Stringy Ideas

Posted on July 12, 2021 by woit

For quite a few years now, I’ve been mystified about what is going on in string theory, as the subject has become dominated by AdS/CFT inspired work which has nothing to do with either strings or any visible idea about … Continue reading →

Posted in Strings 2XXX | 9 Comments

Even More Langlands

Posted on July 6, 2021 by woit

Various news at least tangentially related to the Langlands program: Cambridge University Press this month is publishing a volume edited by Julia Mueller, entitled The Genesis of the Langlands Program. The chapters by various authors concentrate on Langlands himself and … Continue reading →

Posted in Langlands | 3 Comments