Category Archives: Mathematics

Joe Lykken on “Some good/bad news about string theory”

Posted on August 29, 2011 by

Joe Lykken, “String Theory for Physicists,” XXXIII SLAC Summer Institute, 2005, Lecture 1 [PDF]; Lecture 2 [PDF]; and Lecture 3 [PDF]. “Some good/bad news about string theory: Good: String theory is a consistent theory of quantum gravity. Bad: It’s really a … Continue reading →

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String theory and mathematical fertility

Posted on July 17, 2011 by

“String theory dominates the research landscape of quantum gravity physics (despite any direct experimental evidence) due to its mathematical fertility. String theory has generated many surprising, useful, and well-confirmed mathematical ‘predictions’ made on the basis of general physical principles entering into string … Continue reading →

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On the nature of time in string theory

Posted on July 16, 2011 by

The journal Foundations of Physics commemorates “Forty Years of String Theory.” Vijay Balasubramanian (University of Pennsylvania) steps back and ask what we do not understand about time. What is time?  Within the broader quantum gravity community outside string theory there has … Continue reading →

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Lisi and Weatherall in Scientific American: “A Geometric Theory of Everything”

Posted on June 19, 2011 by

“In 2007 physicist A. Garrett Lisi wrote the most talked about theoretical physics paper of the year. He argues that the geometric framework of modern quantum physics can be extended to incorporate Einstein’s theory, leading to a long-sought unification of … Continue reading →

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Baez & Huerta in Scientific American: “The Strangest Numbers in String Theory”

Posted on April 30, 2011 by

  “Octonions were largely neglected since their discovery in 1843, but in the past few decades they have assumed a curious importance in string theory. And indeed, if string theory is a correct representation of the universe, they may explain why … Continue reading →

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Arnold & Fowler on “Nefarious Numbers” about the impact factor manipulation

Posted on February 18, 2011 by

“Goodhart’s law warns us that “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” The impact factor has moved in recent years from an obscure bibliometric indicator to become the chief quantitative measure of the quality of a journal, … Continue reading →

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Kane in Physics Today, “String theory and the real world”

Posted on January 18, 2011 by

“String theory solutions make unambiguous, testable predictions about our four-dimensional universe. To test string theory is like to test Newton’s second law F = ma (a relation between the force F on a particle with mass m and its acceleration … Continue reading →

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Gómez-Ullate et al., “Exceptional orthogonal polynomials”

Posted on January 15, 2011 by

Mathematics is full of surprises. Orthogonal polynomials and their properties appear in many important questions in mathematics, in physics, and in chemistry. It was thought that the classical orthogonal polynomials, which are captured by Bochner’s celebrated 1928 theorem, covered all … Continue reading →

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Twistors killed the Feynman diagram

Posted on January 12, 2011 by

Sing “Twistors killed the Feynman diagram” like “Video Killed the Radio Star,” by The Buggles. A theoretical physicist is a human Feynman’s diagram calculator, nearly by definition. “Richard Feynman’s famous diagrams allow the calculation of how particles interact. However, new mathematical tools,” … Continue reading →

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Foland and Shelton, “Why is Europe so efficient at producing scientific papers?”

Posted on November 19, 2010 by

The total number of Europe scientific papers in 2007 has resulted from an investment of only $1.1 million, but the same amount of papers will cost US about $1.8 million (and China about the same).  Why the EU is so efficient in paper … Continue reading →

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