Recent content by Ai52487963

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    Other Doing a Remote PhD: US Citizen in Seattle

    I currently live in Seattle and am stably employed with a tech company. I've been thinking about going back for my phd, but the issue is a little complicated. I'm a US citizen and did my MSc in astrophysics at University College London. I've been in touch with my old adviser who would be happy...
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    News Fiscal cliff, debt ceiling and research funding

    If this leaked memo from NASA is accurate, looks like any good NASA-funded REUs are out the window now.
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    Admissions Graduate admissions committee politics

    From my very limited understanding of the subject, it does vary wildly between schools and even departments within a college. I'm fairly sure for schools that receive hurricanes of applications every season basically filter everyone by scores and chop off the ones at the bottom without even...
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    Studying Strategy for studying the PGRE

    I did a similar strategy and was getting similar results: 990-ing exams that I had essentially memorized. It's okay in some instances, since you can clearly see which problems they basically cut and paste into the new exams, but it's never the exact same exam. A better strategy would probably...
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    Schools What schools accept mid level Physics GRE scores?

    A non-exhaustive, rule-of-thumb list of schools for various PGRE ranges from 2011 statistics
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    Testing What are my chances of getting into a PhD program with a poor Physics GRE score?

    Most people are surprised when I mention that the Max Planck schools in Germany don't require GRE scores...
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    Terrible PGRE score. Address this in personal statement?

    It depends where you apply. Germany seems to have the best funding for US students, with the International Max Planck Research School being high up on the ladder for quality and chance of career advancement afterwards. They will pay you if you get an offer, but it won't be as much per anum since...
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    Terrible PGRE score. Address this in personal statement?

    If it's any consolation, I have a top-tier masters in astrophysics and I still failed it (0/2 so far). According to people I know who used to work on selection committees, they basically sort everyone by GRE scores first, drop everyone below whatever the average is (ie stanford would drop...
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    Physics Why do some think that the job market for physics majors is terrible?

    Master in astrophysics from a top-tier British uni (US citizenship) here. The only jobs applicable to my area of research (correlation statistics) are programming jobs. Since I never learned about linked lists or bit manipulation, I can't get a job anywhere close to home. I'm either looking at...
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    Ranking languages from high-level to low

    How should I rank the following languages from low-level to high-level? Do I have the ranking right below? ----------high Perl Python Java C# C++ C ----------low Additionally, where do sed/awk/grep fall in line? I'm interested in starting a project that goes through very basic functionality...
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    Master in Physics vs. Bachelors in Engineering?

    US citizen here. Just finishing my masters at a top English uni and am in a bit of a dilemma on where to apply: Europe (or non-US) or US. My case for Europe is that I've already had a near-miss offer at Max Planck (I was third on a list that had 2 spots for my prospective supervisor) and may...
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    Lorentz gamma factor in a decay of arbitrary leptons

    Homework Statement Show that the Lorentz gamma factor in the decay K^+ \rightarrow l^+ \nu_l can be written as \gamma = \frac{m_K^2 + m_l^2}{2m_K m_l} where nu is either e or mu. The Attempt at a Solution I'm stuck on a part of the proof. I think I understand most of it...
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    Relativistic collision in CM frame at small angle

    So in that case, would this be a legitimate way of approaching the problem? I don't like the sines and cosines and I want to get rid of them, so \left( \frac{2E}{c}\right)^2 = \left( \frac{2E'}{c}\right)^2 - \left( p'_{\mu^+} - p'_{\mu^-}cos \theta\right)^2 - \left( p'_{\mu^-}sin \theta...
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    Relativistic collision in CM frame at small angle

    Homework Statement Find CM energy of a mu+ mu- collider, with each beam having an energy E of 500 GeV. The beams cross at a small angle of 250 mrad.Homework Equations E^2 - p^2c^2 = m^2c^4The Attempt at a Solution So I have a diagram for the lab frame which has the mu- coming in at a small...
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    Kaon decay to a lepton and associated neutrino

    I see. I was getting confused with a table I have as a reminder that: when you change particular flavor states (like from C to S or U to D) you emit a W+ and a W- for the reverse operation. I thought in order to go from like a U -> D, D -> C, C -> S you had to emit a W+ each time. So the CKM...
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