Formats and Programs for Physics Papers

[Noxide]

Can anyone recommend a style for writing theoretical physics papers?
I'm just a first-year undergrad but I want to get used to writing papers in a style that is suited, or generally accepted, for theoretical physics papers by practicing on my class notes.

Can someone also suggest an application that is useful for making mathematical symbols within the context of writing such papers?

Some of my peers have suggested using the "equation" and "symbols" tools in microsoft word, but they seem inadequate.

Thanks!

[Nabeshin]

To get an idea of the format, the best thing to do is read papers.
http://arxiv.org/

As far as a program to write them in, I'm pretty sure all these papers are written in laTex. You should familiarize yourself with this typesetting.

[Noxide]

Thanks!

I guess I didn't express myself properly in terms of paper style.

Much like english papers have MLA or Chicago formatting, is there a similar standard for physics papers?

[Born2bwire]

Thanks!

I guess I didn't express myself properly in terms of paper style.

Much like english papers have MLA or Chicago formatting, is there a similar standard for physics papers?

Most professional journals will have information regarding the style that they require from their authors. I've never looked at the style specifications for physics journals, but IEEE has a default style LaTex file that you can download. It's written up according to their specifications and it describes in details what those specifications are. I usually use their style file as a template for my papers.