Sociology of Physics: comment and indices

marcus · Dec 6, 2011

marcus · Dec 8, 2011

The issue of HEP-theory first-time faculty hires came up at NEW blog recently so I did a recount at the "Jobs Rumor Mill" (only source I know for this) to register any changes/corrections from last time. There were 12 outstanding offers from US and Canada physics departments. Two had not yet been marked "accepted". But that may simply be an omission on the Rumor Mill's part.
Annual first-time faculty hires (US and Canada) in HEP theory as a whole, and in string, averaged over 3 year periods, with prelim. estim. for 2011

Code:

period                 1999-2001    2002-2004   2005-2007    2008-2010    2011
annual HEP theory hires   18           24          23           13        10-12 
annual string hires        9            8           6            2          1

Recent discussion:
http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=4219#comment-101129
Sources:
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php?id=archive:2011
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=3715

marcus · Dec 15, 2011

Getting the midmonth December pop-string averages, we have that
at noon on 15 Dec the five most popular stringy books (hidden, fabric, grand, paperback hidden, parallel) ranked 816, 1139, 1612, 2015, 4448 for an average of 2006.

14 December 2179
15 December 2006
16 December ...

marcus · Dec 16, 2011

The chart at the U Toronto site showing first time faculty hires in High Energy Physics Theory has been updated for 2011
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
It shows 11 hires with one being string.
The physicist who posts the charts is a HEP theorist who works in various branches of beyond SM theory including string but also lattice field theory: Erich Poppitz. An interesting mix of research interests, it seemed to me.
2011 was the first year (since the record started in 1994) when "lattice" hires exceeded "string". Back in 1994 hires in the lattice gauge theory category were (recorded by Poppitz as) zero. Since then, string has tended to be overwhelmingly favored except for just recently.

Code:

period                 1999-2001    2002-2004   2005-2007    2008-2010    2011
annual HEP theory hires   18           24          23           13         11 
annual string hires        9            8           6            2          1

Altough the string research program shows some signs of dwindling, stringy book sales to the public are unquestionably strong. Partly I suppose this is due to recent multiverse books such as Grand Design and Hidden Reality, partly also to a new Brian Greene television series. For whatever reason, at noon on 16 Dec the five most popular stringy books (hidden, fabric, hardbound hidden, grand, e-elegant) ranked 980, 1153, 1504, 1644, 4285 for an average of 1913.

14 December 2179
15 December 2006
16 December 1913

The midmonth average this time was 2033.

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)

January 2007:     4396
February 2007:    3789
November 2008:    3711
July 2009:        6485  
March 2010:       7521
April 2010:      11983
May 2010:         6884
June 2010:        9731
July 2010:        8461
August 2010:      9606
September 2010:   1060 
October 2010:     1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011      1252
February 2011      223
March 2011         349
April 2011         649
May 2011           676
June 2011         1153
July 2011         1257
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181
October 2011      2563
November 2011     1243
December 2011     2033

marcus · Jan 2, 2012

Maybe it would give an idea of the currently active topics and who some of the active people are if we list the top 25 Loop papers of 2011 citewise:

HEP 203 records found 1 - 25
1.
Diffeomorphisms in group field theories.
Aristide Baratin (Ecole Polytechnique, CPHT & Saclay, SPhT & Orsay, LPT), Florian Girelli (Sydney U.), Daniele Oriti (Potsdam, Max Planck Inst.). Jan 2011. 31 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.0590 [hep-th]
Cited by 40 records

2.
Zakopane lectures on loop gravity.
Carlo Rovelli (Marseille, CPT). Feb 2011. 25 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.3660 [gr-qc]
Cited by 29 records

3.
Bubble divergences: sorting out topology from cell structure.
Valentin Bonzom, Matteo Smerlak. Mar 2011. 19 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.3961 [gr-qc]
Cited by 18 records

4.
Loop Quantum Cosmology: A Status Report.
Abhay Ashtekar (Penn State U.), Parampreet Singh (Louisiana State U.). Aug 2011. 136 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.0893 [gr-qc]
Cited by 17 records

5.
Observational constraints on loop quantum cosmology.
Martin Bojowald (Penn State U.), Gianluca Calcagni (Potsdam, Max Planck Inst.), Shinji Tsujikawa (Tokyo U. of Sci.). Jan 2011. 4 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.5391 [astro-ph.CO]
Cited by 17 records

6.
Perfect discretization of reparametrization invariant path integrals.
Benjamin Bahr (Cambridge U. & Potsdam, Max Planck Inst.), Bianca Dittrich, Sebastian Steinhaus (Potsdam, Max Planck Inst.). Jan 2011. 8 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.4775 [gr-qc]
Cited by 16 records

7.
Spin foam models with finite groups.
Benjamin Bahr, Bianca Dittrich, James P. Ryan. Mar 2011. 47 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.6264 [gr-qc]
Cited by 15 records

8.
Spinor Representation for Loop Quantum Gravity.
Etera R. Livine, Johannes Tambornino. May 2011. 1 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.3385 [gr-qc]
Cited by 13 records

9.
Regge gravity from spinfoams.
Elena Magliaro, Claudio Perini. May 2011. 8 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.0216 [gr-qc]
Cited by 13 records

10.
Status of Horava gravity: A personal perspective.
Matt Visser (Victoria U., Wellington). Mar 2011. 11 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.5587 [hep-th]
Cited by 13 records

11.
Spin foam models and the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for the quantum 4-simplex.
Valentin Bonzom (Perimeter Inst. Theor. Phys.). Jan 2011. 16 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.1615 [gr-qc]
Cited by 13 records

12.
The Matter Bounce Curvaton Scenario.
Yi-Fu Cai (Arizona State U. & Beijing, Inst. High Energy Phys.), Robert Brandenberger (Beijing, Inst. High Energy Phys. & McGill U.), Xinmin Zhang (Beijing, Inst. High Energy Phys. & TPCSF, Beijing). Jan 2011. 15 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.0822 [hep-th]
Cited by 13 records

13.
The Hamiltonian constraint in 3d Riemannian loop quantum gravity.
Valentin Bonzom, Laurent Freidel (Perimeter Inst. Theor. Phys.). Jan 2011. 24 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.3524 [gr-qc]
Cited by 12 records

14.
Cosmological constant in spinfoam cosmology.
Eugenio Bianchi (Marseille, CPT), Thomas Krajewski (Marseille, CPT & Orsay, LPT), Carlo Rovelli (Marseille, CPT), Francesca Vidotto (Marseille, CPT & Pavia U. & INFN, Pavia). Jan 2011. 4 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.4049 [gr-qc]
Cited by 11 records

15.
Coarse graining methods for spin net and spin foam models.
Bianca Dittrich, Frank C. Eckert, Mercedes Martin-Benito (Potsdam, Max Planck Inst.). Sep 2011. 39 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.4927 [gr-qc]
Cited by 10 records

16.
Observational test of inflation in loop quantum cosmology.
Martin Bojowald (Penn State U.), Gianluca Calcagni (Potsdam, Max Planck Inst.), Shinji Tsujikawa (Tokyo U. of Sci.). Jul 2011. 37 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.1540 [gr-qc]
Cited by 10 records

17.
Holomorphic Simplicity Constraints for 4d Spinfoam Models.
Maite Dupuis (Lyon, IPN & Sydney U.), Etera R. Livine (Lyon, IPN). Apr 2011. 27 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.3683 [gr-qc]
Cited by 10 records

18.
Chern-Simons theory, Stokes' Theorem, and the Duflo map.
Hanno Sahlmann (APCTP, Pohang), Thomas Thiemann (Erlangen - Nuremberg U., Theorie III). Jan 2011. 26 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.1690 [gr-qc]
Cited by 10 records

19.
Quantum simplicial geometry in the group field theory formalism: reconsidering the Barrett-Crane model.
Aristide Baratin, Daniele Oriti. Aug 2011. 24 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.1178 [gr-qc]
Cited by 9 records

20.
Tensor models and hierarchy of n-ary algebras.
Naoki Sasakura (Kyoto U., Yukawa Inst., Kyoto). Apr 2011. 13 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.5312 [hep-th]
Cited by 9 records

21.
Cosmological Constant in LQG Vertex Amplitude.
Muxin Han (Marseille, CPT). May 2011. 4 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.2212 [gr-qc]
Cited by 8 records

22.
Euclidean three-point function in loop and perturbative gravity.
Carlo Rovelli, Mingyi Zhang (Marseille, CPT). May 2011. 16 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.0566 [gr-qc]
Cited by 8 records

23.
Canonical quantization of non-commutative holonomies in 2+1 loop quantum gravity.
K. Noui (Tours U., CNRS), A. Perez, D. Pranzetti (Marseille, CPT). May 2011.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.0439 [gr-qc]
Cited by 8 records

24.
Tensor models and 3-ary algebras.
Naoki Sasakura (Kyoto U., Yukawa Inst., Kyoto). Apr 2011. 18 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.1463 [hep-th]
Cited by 8 records

25.
Curvature in spinfoams.
Elena Magliaro, Claudio Perini (Penn State U.). Mar 2011. 6 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.4602 [gr-qc]
Cited by 8 records

marcus · Jan 3, 2012

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
...
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181
October 2011      2563
November 2011     1243
December 2011     2033

=======================
This InSpire search is designed to turn up observational test-related Loop gravity/cosmology papers. It uses categories established by the DESY librarians. The DESY categories used to make the search are gravitational radiation, inflation, power spectrum, cosmic background radiation, primordial---in conjunction with LQG/LQC.

Loop pheno papers (increasingly observational test-related)

Code:

 2000-2003     2004-2007     2008-2011
    6              27           48

2000-2003 inclusive: 6 found
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...Search&sf=&so=d&rm=citation&rg=100&sc=0&of=hb

2004-2007 using the same categories: 27 papers.
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...Search&sf=&so=d&rm=citation&rg=100&sc=0&of=hb

2008-2011: 48 papers
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...Search&sf=&so=d&rm=citation&rg=100&sc=0&of=hb

marcus · Jan 10, 2012

marcus · Jan 12, 2012

The year's first mid-month pop-string salesrank averages. Here is the reading at noon pacific time, for 12 January

12 Jan 2811
13 Jan ...
14 Jan ...
15 Jan ...
16 Jan ...
17 Jan ...
18 Jan ...

At the moment the 5 most popular string books are e-grand, grand, e-hidden, e-elegant, fabric .
The idea is to take top five salesrank averages for several days around the 15th of each month.
For the past 15 months the most popular stringy books have focused on the multiverse notion and have almost exclusively been ones by Hawking or by Greene.

marcus · Jan 13, 2012

marcus · Jan 15, 2012

Except for the kindle electronic version of Elegant Universe, the leading stringy books continue to be those featuring multiverse speculation---only marginally about string/M-theory proper. However the sales of popular stringy multiverse books remain strong. For comparison here are midmonth figures for the past several months:

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
...
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181
October 2011      2563
November 2011     1243
December 2011     2033

marcus · Jan 18, 2012

Bringing forward several of the indices we are tracking. The following gauges the quality/significance of current string research by how much it gets cited by other researchers. Here a paper is counted as recent if it appeared in the previous five years. Current string research is less cited than has been the case in the past, and first-time faculty hiring of string researchers has declined.

Number of recent string papers making the top fifty in the annual Spires HEP topcite list

Code:

year (some omitted for brev.)   2001    2003    2005    2007    2009    2010  
recent work highly cited in year  12       6       2       1       1       0

Sources:
2001 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2001/annual.shtml (twelve)
2003 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2003/annual.shtml (six)
2005 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2005/annual.shtml (two)
2007 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2007/annual.shtml (one)
2009 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2009/annual.shtml (one)
2010 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2010/annual.shtml (zero)

Annual first-time faculty hires (US and Canada) in HEP theory overall, and string in particular, averaged over 3 year periods

Code:

period                   1999-2001    2002-2004   2005-2007    2008-2010    2011
annual HEP theory hires    18           24          23           13          11 
annual string hires         9            8           6            2           1

Sources:
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php?id=archive:2011
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php

Pop-string book sales have declined somewhat recently as indicated by their increased average salesrankings.

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
September 2010    1060 
October 2010      1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011      1252
February 2011      223
March 2011         349
April 2011         649
May 2011           676
June 2011         1153
July 2011         1257
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181
October 2011      2563
November 2011     1243
December 2011     2033
January 2012      3143

To provide a bit of detail, at noon pacific time on 16 Jan the five most popular stringy books (grand, e-elegant, e-hidden, hidden, fabric) ranked 1674, 1821, 2471, 2947, 3727 for an average of 2528. At noon on 17th the stringy topfive were e-elegant, hidden, grand, e-hidden, elegant and the average was 2664. Again at noon pacific time on 18 Jan the five most popular stringy books (grand, e-elegant, elegant, e-hidden, e-grand) ranked 2485+3361+4626+5365+7782 for an average of 4724 The January midmonth figure of 3143 was obtained as a average of the following:

12 Jan 2811
13 Jan 3499
14 Jan 3261
15 Jan 2516
16 Jan 2528
17 Jan 2664
18 Jan 4724

marcus · Jan 26, 2012

Overall reserach trends as of 26 January---year getting off to a good start.

LOOP RESEARCH BY YEAR (loop quantum gravity, loop quantum cosmology, spin foam)

2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (77 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (120 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (142 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (145 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (152 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (203 found)
2012 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (168 annualized from 12 found)

STRING,MEMBRANE,AdS/CFT RESEARCH BY YEAR
(search terms "string model", "membrane model" and "AdS/CFT correspondence")

2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1029 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1050 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1128 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1133 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1044 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (927 found)
2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (562 annualized from 40 found)

http://howlonguntil.net/

On the HEP-theory job scene http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php shows the first-time faculty positions which Theoretical Particle Physics Jobs Rumor Mill (JRM) says are open in Usa and Canada.
It shows that 19 institutions have posted theory job openings, and over half of these already show "short lists" of people they are considering. These tend to overlap so that although the total length of all the short lists shown so far is 37, the lists contain only 22 distinct names. (Some names are repeated in two or more lists.)

Last year, according to JRM, out of 11 reported hires, one was a string theorist (hired by Baylor U in Texas). Other types of HEP theory that seem to be doing better include cosmology, lattice gauge theory. You can look for yourself.

marcus · Feb 3, 2012

Last week I checked the Strings 2012 website and read the preliminary (incomplete) list of speakers. Didn't notice any who would be giving "string multiverse" talks. If it plays out that way this will simply carry on the practice since 2008 of excluding "anthropic string landscape" from the annual conference. Widely considered to be pseudoscience, though the subject of several very popular books and television programs for wide audience.

i just now tried to bring up the Strings 2012 pages and found they had moved or for some other reason I couldn't get them. Here are two url that are (temporarily?) not working:
http://wwwth.mppmu.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings.html
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings.html
The conference will be in Munich July 23-28.

AFAICS the major conference of this year as regards relativity and cosmology (including string cosmology, quantum gravity, quantum cosmology...) will be the 13th Marcel Grossmann in Stockholm
July 1-7:
Here is the lineup of invited plenary speakers.
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/invited_speakers.htm
It is a huge conference with many parallel sessions on many topics.
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/parallel_sessions.htm
For instance in the Cosmological Models bunch there is this.
CM4 Quantum Cosmology and Quantum Effects in the Early Universe (chaired by Paulo Moniz)

Here is the entire Quantum Gravity bunch (session chair shown in parens).

QG1 Loop Quantum Gravity, Quantum Geometry, Spin Foams (Jerzy Lewandowski)
QG2 Quantum Gravity Phenomenology (Giovanni Amelino-Camelia)
QG3 Asymptotic Safeness and Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Gravity (Eckehard W. Mielke)
QG4 Loop quantum gravity: cosmology and black holes (Jorge Pullin, Parampreet Singh)
(There was also that workshop in Portugal to keep track of
http://www.fctec.ualg.pt/qisg/speakers.html )

Updating overall research trends as of 3 February (34/366 year)

LOOP RESEARCH BY YEAR (loop quantum gravity, loop quantum cosmology, spin foam)

2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (77 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (120 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (142 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (145 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (152 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (203 found)
2012 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (172 annualized from 16 found)

STRING,MEMBRANE,AdS/CFT RESEARCH BY YEAR
(search terms "string model", "membrane model" and "AdS/CFT correspondence")

2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1029 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1050 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1128 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1133 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1044 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (927 found)
2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (678 annualized from 63 found)

http://howlonguntil.net/

The HEP-theory job scene shows little change. http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php lists the first-time faculty positions which Theoretical Particle Physics Jobs Rumor Mill (JRM) says are open in Usa and Canada. It shows that 19 institutions have posted theory job openings, and over half of these already show "short lists" of people they are considering. These tend to overlap so that although the total length of all the short lists shown so far is 38, the lists contain only 22 distinct names. (Some names are repeated in two or more lists.)

marcus · Feb 13, 2012

Since I checked http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php last, nearly all the 19 institutions with HEP Theory job postings are showing short lists of those they're considering (this is for first time faculty hires). The short lists total 51, a large increase from last time. Fewer than that if you count distinct names, because of overlap.

With the aim of getting a midmonth fix on the popular string book market, I'll record some readings at noon Pacific on a few days around the 15th.

Feb 13 3237
Feb 14 ...
Feb 15 ...
Feb 16 ...
Feb 17 ...

The picture there has changed little. At noon 13 Feb the 5 most popular stringy books ( hidden, e-elegant, fabric, grand, e-grand) ranked 2747, 2896, 3418, 3492, 3633 for an average of 3237.

marcus · Feb 15, 2012

A spot check of the HEP theory job situation according to http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php shows 3 offers have been made (first time faculty, Usa and Canada). The three with offers are not string theorists as it happens. It seems that the hiring season is under way.

It looks like 19 institutions have first time faculty openings posted. That number has not changed for several weeks (my guess is that's it for 2012) and those 19 have short lists totaling 51--that number is bound to increase but not by a lot. It now contains 27 distinct names (after eliminating overlap.)Most of the 19 have their short lists on the board.

String book salesrank averages, some readings at noon Pacific on a few days around the 15th.

Feb 13 3237
Feb 14 2866
Feb 15 3553
Feb 16 ...
Feb 17 ...

At noon 15 Feb the 5 most popular stringy books ( hidden, e-elegant, fabric, e-grand, e-hidden) ranked 2643+2742+3721+3999+4662 for an average of 3553

marcus · Feb 17, 2012

Update HEP theory job situation according to http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php (first time faculty positions, Usa and Canada), which reports that 19 institutions have posted openings. Of those, 13 show short lists of people they're considering, totaling 55. The aggregate of short lists now contains 29 distinct names.

Two institutions have already made a total of 3 offers.
=================
Just for comparison, last year 25 institutions had openings posted, and eventually 12 hires were recorded (HEP theory as a whole) of which one was a string theorist.
Some of the 25 institutions withdrew their searches, or else they made offers but their offers were not accepted (the person preferred to go somewhere else).

Roughly speaking, 19 this year is about the same order of magnitude as 25 last year, so as a very crude guess one might expect it to result in about the same number of hires, namely about a dozen. It will be interesting to see what subfields are represented (e.g. cosmology, astroparticle, LHC phenomenology, extensions of standard model, lattice gauge theory, string...)

String book salesrank averages at noon Pacific on a few days around the 15th.

Feb 13 3237
Feb 14 2866
Feb 15 3553
Feb 16 4248
Feb 17 3355

To illustrate, at noon 16 Feb the 5 most popular stringy books (e-elegant, hidden, grand, fabric, e-grand) ranked 3626+3671+4391+4745+4802 for an average of 4248

The February midmonth average is (3237+2866+3553+4248+3355)/5=3452

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
September 2010    1060 
October 2010        1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011        1252
February 2011        223
March 2011            349
April 2011              649
May 2011               676
June 2011             1153
July 2011              1257
August 2011          2068
September 2011     2181
October 2011         2563
November 2011     1243
December 2011     2033
January 2012        3143
February 2012       3452

marcus · Mar 9, 2012

To update on the HEP theory job situation as reported by http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php (first time faculty positions, Usa and Canada): 19 institutions have posted openings. Of those, 14 show "short lists" of people they're considering, the average list being 63/14 between 4 and 5 in length. In aggregate, the short lists now contain 32 distinct names.
Two institutions have already made a total of 3 offers.

For comparison, last year 25 institutions had openings posted, and eventually 11 hires were reported (HEP theory as a whole) of which one was a string theorist. Some of the 25 institutions withdrew their searches, or else they made offers but their offers were not accepted (the person preferred to go somewhere else).
A physicist at the U Toronto (Erich Poppitz) charts first time faculty hires in High Energy Physics Theory by year and keeps track of what fraction of these are in string, which fraction are in lattice field theory, and so on.
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
His chart shows 11 HEP theory hires in 2011 with one being string.
2011 was the first year (since the record started in 1994) when "lattice" hires exceeded "string".

Code:

period                 1999-2001    2002-2004   2005-2007    2008-2010    2011
annual HEP theory hires   18             24            23             13            11 
annual string hires           9              8              6               2              1

Here I have taken 3 years averages to smooth out Poppitz data and get an idea of the trend in annual rate of hiring. This shows the annual rate of overall HEP theory hires (for firsttime faculty positions) and the part of that going to string theorists. It seems remarkable that a mere 10-12 years ago HALF the hep-theory jobs were going to string theorists. Not so today.

A new webpage has been started that reports on postdoc fellowships in a broader category (gen. rel. and quantum cosmology) which includes quantum gravity. So, something to keep an eye on:
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/

As a spot check on the pop-string book market, at Pacific noon today the top string titles (e-elegant, grand, e-grand, e-hidden, fabric) ranked 568, 2824, 3298, 4078, 5207 for an average of 3195. The price of the electronic version of Brian Greene's Elegant has been cut to $3.99 which partly accounts for its sudden jump in sales.

marcus · Mar 13, 2012

An interesting shift in the conference lineup can be seen in the organization of "Group 29". International Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics
This biannual conference has never included Loop QG or its related group field theory (GFT applied to QG) as topics. For instance here's the 2008 Group 27 webpage:
http://theor.jinr.ru/~group27/

This year, by contrast, Group 29 will feature both Loop and GFT.
http://www.nim.nankai.edu.cn/activites/conferences/hy20120820/pdf/1st-Announcement.pdf
The conference will be held in August at the Chern Institute in Tianjin.
==list of parallel sessions==
Parallel Sessions
1) Nonlinear Sciences
2) Quantum Algebras
3) Superintegrable Hamiltonian
4) Applications in Biology
5) Quantum Information and Representation theory
6) Finite Quantum Systems, Combinatorics, Combinatorial Physics, and Symmetries of Quantum Systems
7) Symmetries in String Theory and Supergravity
8) Loop Quantum Gravity
9) Group Field Theory for Quantum Gravity
10) Conformal Field Theories
11) Supersymmetry and Quantum Groups
12) Group Theory in High Energy and Nuclear Physics
==endquote==
The week before the Group 29 conference there will be a QG school in Beijing for PhD students and postdocs interested in getting into LQG research.

This year the April meeting of the APS (American Physical Society) is featuring invited talks on Loop. There will also be contributed talks, but the noteworthy thing is there being two specially invited ones: Eugenio Bianchi will give an overview of the current canonical and spinfoam versions of the full theory and Ivan Agullo will report on joint work with Abhay Ashtekar and William Nelson, in Loop cosmology of the early universe.
The session (Q4) is called Advances in Quantum Gravity. They also include a stringy talk (applications holog. to cond. matter.)
Here are links to abstracts of the two invited Loop talks and the invited String talk:
http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR12/SessionIndex2/?SessionEventID=170158
Here are links for the contributed talks session Quantum Aspects of Gravity (L8):
http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR12/sessionindex2/?SessionEventID=173091
Invited talks are assigned 35 minutes, the others (contributed) are given just 12 minutes. Crowded schedule.

Here are a couple of other 2012 conference websites to check for trends.
13th Marcel Grossmann (Stockholm July 1-7):
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/invited_speakers.htm
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/parallel_sessions.htm
List of scheduled sessions devoted to Quantum Gravity (chair in parens).
QG1 Loop Quantum Gravity, Quantum Geometry, Spin Foams (Jerzy Lewandowski)
QG2 Quantum Gravity Phenomenology (Giovanni Amelino-Camelia)
QG3 Asymptotic Safeness and Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Gravity (Eckehard W. Mielke)
QG4 Loop quantum gravity: cosmology and black holes (Jorge Pullin, Parampreet Singh)

Strings 2012 (Munich July 23-28):
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings.html
Beginning around 2008 Strings organizers have avoided inviting in-conference talks on the "multiverse" topic. Instead, there have been some popular evening talks about that given for the general pubic.

LOOP RESEARCH BY YEAR (loop quantum gravity, loop quantum cosmology, spin foam)

2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (77 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (120 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (142 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (145 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (152 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (203 found)
2012 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (110 annualized from 22 found)

STRING,MEMBRANE,AdS/CFT RESEARCH BY YEAR
(search terms "string model", "membrane model" and "AdS/CFT correspondence")

2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1029 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1050 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1128 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1133 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1044 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (927 found)
2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (671 annualized from 134 found)

http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm 13 March = 73/366

Checking the pop-string book market (gauge of wide-audience interest) for midmonth top-five average salesranks:

13 March 3083
14 March ...
15 March ...
16 March ...
17 March ...

At noon Pacific on 13 March the five most popular string books (e-elegant, grand, hidden, e-grand, e-hidden) ranked 1037, 1963, 3217, 3435, 5702, for an average of 3083.

marcus · Mar 15, 2012

A short list of conference websites to watch for changes in standing of various research lines--
American Physical Society (Atlanta April):
_Invited QG talks http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR12/SessionIndex2/?SessionEventID=170158
_Regular QG talks http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR12/SessionIndex2/?SessionEventID=173091
Relativity and Gravitation centennial (Prague June):
http://ae100prg.mff.cuni.cz/program
Marcel Grossmann (Stockholm July):
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/parallel_sessions.htm
Quantum Gravity School (Beijing, first week of August):
TBA
International Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics (Tianjin August):
http://theor.jinr.ru/~group27/
Quantum Integrable Systems and Geometry (Portugal September)
http://www.fctec.ualg.pt/qisg/speakers.htmlChecking the pop-string book market (gauge of wide-audience interest) for midmonth top-five noon salesrank averages:
13 March 3083
14 March 3165
15 March 3203
16 March ...
17 March ...
At noon Pacific on 15 March the five most popular string books (e-elegant, e-grand, grand, hidden, elegant) ranked 1327, 2361,3041, 4327, 4958, for an average of 3203.

http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/

http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm

marcus · Mar 16, 2012

Corrections to above list of conference websites to watch for changes in standing of various research lines--
American Physical Society (Atlanta April):
~Invited QG talks http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR12/SessionIndex2/?SessionEventID=170158
~Regular QG talks http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR12/SessionIndex2/?SessionEventID=173091
Relativity and Gravitation centennial (Prague June):
http://ae100prg.mff.cuni.cz/program
Marcel Grossmann (Stockholm July):
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/parallel_sessions.htm
Quantum Gravity School (Beijing, 12-18 August):
TBA
International Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics (Tianjin 20-26 August):
http://www.nim.nankai.edu.cn/activites/conferences/hy20120820/pdf/1st-Announcement.pdf
Quantum Integrable Systems and Geometry (Portugal September)
http://www.fctec.ualg.pt/qisg/speakers.html

Additional links to check for current activity:
http://relativity.phys.lsu.edu/ilqgs/
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Scientific/Seminars/Quantum_Gravity/
http://pirsa.org/S005
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/

http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htmAt noon Pacific on 16 March the five most popular string books (e-elegant, e-grand, grand, hidden, elegant) ranked 1607, 3439, 3731, 5877, 6542, for an average of 4239.

marcus · Mar 17, 2012

Midmonth top-five string salesrank averages
13 March 3083
14 March 3165
15 March 3203
16 March 4239
17 March 2485
This makes the March figure 3235.

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
September 2010    1060 
October 2010        1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011        1252
February 2011        223
March 2011            349
April 2011              649
May 2011               676
June 2011             1153
July 2011              1257
August 2011          2068
September 2011     2181
October 2011         2563
November 2011     1243
December 2011      2033
January 2012         3143
February 2012        3452
March 2012            3235

The electronic version of Kaku's 1994 "parallel universe" book Hyperspace is on sale cut-rate for $2.99.
That was the number one string book in today's top five.
Handy link that lists upcoming conferences:
http://www.anu.edu.au/physics/ACIGA/Conferences.html
This confirms what was said earlier about the next triennial GRG conference being held in Warsaw:
20th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR20)
(Warsaw, Poland, July 8 - 13, 2013)
Here is Lewandowski's BID to have the conference in Warsaw:
http://www.fuw.edu.pl/~lewand/Bid-GR20.pdf
The photos of the Warsaw venue are beautiful, it looks like a lovely venue for the next main international GR conference.

marcus · Mar 25, 2012

The MG13 website has begun to post titles of the invited talks. Thirteen of the titles have been posted so far (in some cases with a bit more description).
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/invited_speakers_details.htm

marcus · Apr 1, 2012

The Strings 2012 conference website has begun posting the titles of the invited plenary talks (all the talks are normally in this category). Something to keep an eye on and check now and then. It's a clue to what the organizers know that active and prominent string researchers are interested in hearing about. The conference will be held in Munich, in late July.
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html

39 invited plenary speakers are listed, not counting usual welcoming talk(s) that open the conference. These 39 include 7 OVERVIEW talks, and also two talks at the end of the conference intended to give a SUMMARY of what was presented and an OUTLOOK on string future by David Gross.
If a talk is not listed as one of these, then it's one of the 30 on some particular topic.

Opening:
J. Schwarz (Caltech)
G. Veneziano (CERN)

Overview talks:
J. Carrasco (Stanford University)
S. Dimopoulos (Stanford University)
A. Karch (University of Washington)
H. Nicolai (MPI Gravitationsphysik, Potsdam)
A. Uranga (Universidad de Madrid)
C. Vafa (Harvard University)
X. Yin (Harvard University)

Conference summary:
H. Ooguri (Caltech/IPMU, Tokyo)

Outlook/Vision:
D. Gross (KITP/UC, Santa Barbara)
========================

One indication of change is that the String community has begun to show more interest in hearing about NON-STRING QUANTUM GEOMETRY as witnessed by the fact that one of the OVERVIEW talks (by Hermann Nicolai) is scheduled to be "Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey"

At this point it is the only overview talk whose title is listed. Indeed it is the only Strings 2012 talk of any sort whose title is listed.
Last September at CERN, Nicolai gave a not-very-satisfactory overview of the alternative QG approaches
http://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=152112
Regarding Loop, it was an honest try I think, but reflecting pre-2007 papers on the whole, or what is worse some more recent critiques which themselves cite mostly out of date stuff.
Well-intentioned but based on an artificially out-dated and biased picture. My expectation is that his overview will have evolved somewhat since then, and if it has, it will be interesting to see in what ways.

What I find hopeful is not that the conference-goers are guaranteed an accurate picture (I don't think they necessarily are) but that they are evidently interested in hearing about current approaches to non-string quantum gravity--interested enough to have the Munich organizers feature an "overview" talk on that subject.

marcus · Apr 2, 2012

The Marcel Grossmann meeting in Stockholm now has 14 talk titles posted (out of 28 total invited speakers) of which around 6 have ABSTRACTS posted already.
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/invited_speakers_details.htm
Jan AMBJORN Lattice gravity: overview and recent progress
Charles BENNETT WMAP

ABSTRACT: The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) produced the first full sky maps of cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization fluctuations extending from full sky to sub-horizon scales. The measurements significantly constrain the physics of the very early universe and directly support the inflation prediction that primordial fluctuations were primarily adiabatic and nearly scale-invariant. The measurements also constitute core support for the standard model of cosmology, with accurate and precise cosmological parameters. WMAP data have reduced the cosmological parameter uncertainty volume by a factor of more than 30,000 compared with pre-WMAP CMB results. The standard model specifies the age of the universe and the curvature of the universe to high accuracy. It also specifies the composition of the universe, including the overall matter density, the baryon density, and the cold dark matter density. When combined with other astronomical measurements, the WMAP measurements constrain the properties of the dark energy and the mass of the neutrino. Future CMB observations (from Planck, balloon-borne, and ground-based experiments) and a host of other cosmological observations should be able to further test, constrain, and extend the standard cosmological model.

Frederik DENEF Gravity and Glass
Petr HORAVA Quantum Gravity with Anisotropic Scaling and the Multicritical Universe
Mario LIVIO The Greatest Scientific Achievements of the Hubble Space Telescope

ABSTRACT: I will review the most important scientific achievements of the Hubble Space Telescope. In this review, I will cover topics ranging from Dark Energy to Extrasolar Planets, and from the age of the universe to Supermassive Black Holes. I will also present results of some of the most recent observations, following the last shuttle servicing mission to Hubble, and I will briefly discuss open questions in astrophysics for the next decade.

Piero MADAU Exploring Dark Matter with Milky Way Substructure
Nazzareno MANDOLESI Planck [Mission] and fundamental physics
Jean-Loup PUGET High Energy Planck Mission

ABSTRACT: The achieved Planck High Frequency Instrument survey performances will be described. The very high sensitivity provided by the 100mK bolometers will allow to test early universe cosmology models (especially inflationary models).Other expected results directly related to fundamental physics questions will also be described. Astrophysical cosmology results from the early Planck Collaboration papers will also be presented.

Harvey REALL Black holes in higher dimensions

ABSTRACT: I shall review what is known about black holes in higher dimensions. I shall discuss the known explicit solutions, results concerning the classification of stationary black holes, and instabilities of rotating black holes in higher dimensions.

Martin REUTER QEG: Towards an Asymptotically Safe Quantum Theory of Gravity
Luciano REZZOLLA Using numerical relativity to explore fundamental physics and astrophysics

ABSTRACT: Recent years have seen a major progress in numerical relativity and the solution of the simplest and yet among the most challenging problems in classical general relativity: that of the evolution of two objects interacting only gravitationally. I will review the results obtained so far when modelling binaries of black holes or of neutron stars and also discuss the impact these studies have in detection of gravitational-waves, in astrophysics, and in our understanding of general relativity.

David SPERGEL The Cosmic Microwave Background and the Hidden Universe

ABSTRACT: Large-scale CMB observations have played an important role in measuring the physical conditions at z=1100 and in establishing a standard cosmological model. In the coming decade, small-scale CMB observations will help us explore the "hidden universe": the dark matter, the dark energy and the "missing" baryons in the intergalactic medium through observations of the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect and through gravitational lensing of the CMB. I will describe results from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope including the first detections of the kSZ effect and the first measurement of CMB lensing. I will also look forward to upcoming data from ACTPOL, which should begin observing in summer 2012, and from a large survey that will be conducted with HyperSuprime Camera, a 1.5 x 1.5 degree camera on the Subaru telescope that will map the same region of the sky.

marcus · Apr 5, 2012

The Marcel Grossmann meeting in Stockholm now has ABSTRACTS posted for 14 out of its 28 invited talks
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/invited_speakers_details.htm
These give an idea of what leading experts in relativity, gravitation, and cosmology are interested hearing about and discussing this year. It's a way to gauge where research is going at present. Another window on the research scene is provided by the statements by the chairs of the special sessions
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm
For example the chairman of one of the two special sessions on Loop quantum gravity posted this about recent progress, status and what he wants the reports in his session to cover:
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#lewandowski
The other Loop session focuses on Loop quantum cosmology. The chairman's statement is here:
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#pullin

====
I made an error in the date at one point in the previous post: by mistake I wrote 13 March instead of 3 April. To correct for that I'll do current Loop and String research rate indices over again of today, 5 April.
Both Loop and String programs seem to have gotten off to a slow start in the first quarter of 2012 but now to be picking up. Obviously three months is a small sample.

LOOP RESEARCH BY YEAR (loop quantum gravity, loop quantum cosmology, spin foam)

2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (77 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (120 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (142 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (145 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (152 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (203 found)
2012 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (126 annualized from 33 found)

STRING,MEMBRANE,AdS/CFT RESEARCH BY YEAR
(search terms "string model", "membrane model" and "AdS/CFT correspondence")

2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1029 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1050 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1128 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1133 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1044 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (927 found)
2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (694 annualized from 182 found)

http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm as of 5 April = 96/366
Links to check from time to time:
eye on Strings 2012 conf http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
relativist postdoc jobs
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
particle theorist faculty jobs
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Scientific/Seminars/Quantum_Gravity/
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Scientific/Seminars/Colloquium/

marcus · Apr 12, 2012

Time to get some midmonth noon readings on the pop-string book market

12 April 2663
13 April
14 April
15 April
16 April
17 April
18 April

At noon 12 April the five most popular stringy books (grand, e-grand, e-elegant, e-hidden, hardcover-grand) ranked 1680, 1782, 2775, 2844, 4233 for an average of 2663.

marcus · Apr 14, 2012

Last week, Stephen Hawking appeared (as himself) in an episode of The Big Bang sitcom and his multiverse book ("Grand Design") is hotcakes in all three editions: soft, hard, and electronic. Midmonth noon readings on the pop-string book market

12 April 2663
13 April 2923
14 April 2608
15 April
16 April
17 April
18 April

On 14 April the top five string-oriented books (grand, e-grand, hard-grand, e-elegant, hidden) ranked 1462, 2023, 2642, 3126, 3788 for an average of 2608.

Incidental news:
There will be a QG School at Beijing Normal University (BNU) in August.
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php

==quote from announcement==
The BNU International Summer School on Quantum Gravity is intended to provide a pedagogical introduction for graduate students and young post-docs to the main fields closely related to loop quantum gravity.

Topics include: Loop quantum gravity, Loop quantum cosmology, Spin foams, Group field theory, Regge calculus

Lecturers:
Abhay Ashtekar (Penn State Univ, USA)
Benjamin Bahr (Cambridge Univ, UK)
John Barrett (Univ of Nottingham, UK)
Jonathan Engle (Florida Atlantic Univ, USA)
Thomas Krajewski (Univ of Provence & CPT Marseille, France)
Jerzy Lewandowski (Univ of Warsaw, Poland)
Etera Livine (ENS de Lyon, France)
==endquote==
The Beijing QG School is timed to segue into the XXIX International Group Theory Methods in Physics conference ("Groups 29")
http://www.nim.nankai.edu.cn/activites/conferences/hy20120820/pdf/1st-Announcement.pdf
to be held the following week at Chern Institute in nearby Tianjin.
Two of the sessions planned for Groups 29 are:
8) Loop Quantum Gravity 9) Group Field Theory for Quantum Gravity

marcus · Apr 16, 2012

12 April 2663
13 April 2923
14 April 2608
15 April 2406
16 April 2624
17 April
18 April

On 16 April the top five string-oriented books (e-grand, grand, e-elegant, hidden, fabric) ranked 1461+2715+2802+3052+3090 for an average of 2624.

marcus · Apr 18, 2012

Bringing forward several of the indices we are tracking. The following gauges the quality/significance of recent string research by how much it currently gets cited by (mainly other string) researchers. Here a paper is counted as recent if it appeared in the previous five years. Recent string research is less cited now than was the case formerly, say, ten years ago, and first-time faculty hiring of string researchers has declined.

Number of recent string papers making the top fifty in the annual Spires HEP topcite list

Code:

year (some omitted for brevity)      2001    2003    2005    2007    2009    2010  
recent work highly cited that year     12         6        2         1         1         0

Sources:
2001 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2001/annual.shtml (twelve)
2003 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2003/annual.shtml (six)
2005 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2005/annual.shtml (two)
2007 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2007/annual.shtml (one)
2009 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2009/annual.shtml (one)
2010 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2010/annual.shtml (zero)

========
A physicist at the U Toronto (Erich Poppitz) charts first time faculty hires in High Energy Physics Theory by year, in Usa and Canada. He keeps track of what fraction of the hires are in string, which fraction are in other branches of theory: cosmology, extensions of the Standard Model, and so on.
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
His chart shows 11 HEP theory hires in 2011 with one being string.

Code:

period                    1999-2001    2002-2004   2005-2007    2008-2010    2011
annual HEP theory hires      18             24            23             13            11 
annual string hires              9              8              6               2              1

Here I have taken 3 years averages to smooth out Poppitz data and get an idea of the trends in annual rates of hiring. This shows the annual rate of overall HEP theory hires (for firsttime faculty positions) and also the part of that going to string theorists. It seems remarkable that a mere 10-12 years ago HALF the hep-theory jobs were going to string theorists. Not so today.

The 2012 hiring season is now in full swing. To update on the HEP theory job situation as reported by http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php (first time faculty positions, Usa and Canada), offers are out to 7 individuals in all, including two offers which have already been accepted.

It's interesting to see what areas of specialization are represented e.g. cosmology, phenomenology, lattice gauge theory,...etc among those who received offers.
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Kaplan,+J
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Slatyer,+T
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Carpenter,+L
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Reece,+M
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Lisanti,+M
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+ea+Fan,+JiJi
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Poland,+D
This sampling of research papers may give a suggestion regarding which *types* of HEP theory the departments doing the hiring want to reinforce, or perhaps one could say in which types they want to "invest" researcher-years of effort. It must have something to do with which lines of theory the physics department committee members think will "pay off".
================

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
September 2010    1060 
October 2010        1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011        1252
February 2011        223
March 2011            349
April 2011              649
May 2011               676
June 2011             1153
July 2011              1257
August 2011          2068
September 2011     2181
October 2011         2563
November 2011     1243
December 2011      2033
January 2012         3143
February 2012        3452
March 2012            3235
April 2012              2769

12 April 2663
13 April 2923
14 April 2608
15 April 2406
16 April 2624
17 April 2731
18 April 3426

At noon 18 April the top five string-oriented books (grand, e-grand, fabric, hidden, hard-grand) ranked 1855+1997+2888+5031+5361 for an average of 3426.
That makes the April midmonth average 2769
2663+2923+2608+2406+2624+2731+3426)/7
__________

marcus · Apr 26, 2012

I'm considering how to streamline the recording of midmonth salesrank averages. Perhaps I can save space and effort by only keeping figures for every four months: e.g. March, July, November.
The main emphasis of this thread has become the professional scene (as opposed to the popular book market.) The indicators I'm watching include

first-time faculty jobs (areas of theory where departments seem to want to hire)
focus of major conferences (speakers and titles of invited talks)
citations to current work (gauging the value/relevance of current research)

Public perceptions, as indicated by the changing salesranks of types of books, do not seem so relevant to the sociology within the physics profession, and the gradual shifts of interest and activity which are going on in the research communities.

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
July 2009              6485
November 2009       NA
March 2010           7521
July 2010              8461
November 2010     2220
March 2011            349
July 2011              1257
November 2011     1243
March 2012           3235

So I'm going to see how it looks to skip months, and just tabulate salesranks for March July November. I will still CALCULATE averages for the intervening months, in case I want to go back to the old way, or in case some current trend seems interesting, but, tentatively at least, the longterm record will be pruned down.

There has been an unusual circumstance in connection with the Strings 2012 conference
About one month ago around March 31, the organizers added a page to their website designed to list the invited speakers and the titles of their talks.
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
But so far only one talk's title has been posted. The rest are still "TBA".
Normally looking down the list of titles of invited talks is a way of seeing what topics are currently of special interest to the community. Which areas have been especially active---what do the organizers think the conferees especially want to hear about?

For nearly a month now (as of today 26 April) the only talk title listed has been:

Hermann Nicolai---Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey

Is this then what is most on string theorists' minds these days, and what they most want to hear about? :-D
It's a bit strange to see 39 invited speakers' names listed and still after a month all but one of their talks saying "TBA". The conference begins in just a bit under 3 months, on 23 July.

marcus · Apr 27, 2012

marcus · Apr 30, 2012

Update on the triennial Marcel Grossmann meeting (MG13) to be held the first week of July in Stockholm, it now has ABSTRACTS posted for 17 out of its 29 invited talks
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/invited_speakers_details.htm
These give an idea of what leading experts in relativity, gravitation, and cosmology are interested hearing about and discussing this year. It's a way to gauge where research is going at present.
So far I see no multiverse stuff or "something out of nothing" stuff. Maybe you can find some reference if you look closely. String as a whole seems downplayed, considerably less of it at MG than in past years. I gather it's less interesting now to professional cosmologists. Another window on the research scene is provided by the statements by the chairs of the special sessions.
Here's the list of special sessions:
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/parallel_sessions.htm
Here's what the chairfolks have to say:
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm
For example the chairman of one of the two special sessions on Loop quantum gravity posted this about recent progress, status and what he wants the reports in his session to cover:
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#lewandowski
The other Loop session focuses on Loop quantum cosmology. The chairman's statement is here:
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#pullin

It has now been a full month (as of 30 April) since the organizers of Strings 2012 put online this list designed to show this years 39 invited speakers and the titles of their talks.
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
and throughout that time the list has displayed one talk's title, and only one. The rest have been and are still "TBA".
The sole title listed has been:
Hermann Nicolai---Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey
Normally looking down the list of titles of invited talks at a major conference is a way of seeing what topics are currently of special interest to the community: which areas have been especially active and which the organizers think those attending the conference are most interested in hearing about.
It could be that what is most on string theorists' minds these days, and what they are most concerned to hear about is precisely what Hermann Nicolai has chosen and prepared to discuss.
It's a bit unusual to see 39 invited speakers' names listed and still after a month all but one of their talks saying "TBA". The conference starts 23 July.

marcus · May 8, 2012

For convenience I'll group links to check for current QG-related trends and active topics.
Jobs:
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
Schools and Conferences:
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/invited_speakers_details.htm
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
Colloquia:
http://pirsa.org/12050053

In the Usa+Canada HEP theory 2012 job market, as of 8 May, first-time faculty position offers have been made to 8 people. Gain of one over the past 3 weeks. This gives a rough indication of the research interests on the part those who have received offers:
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Kaplan,+J
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Slatyer,+T
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Carpenter,+L
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Reece,+M
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Lisanti,+M
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+ea+Fan,+JiJi
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Poland,+D
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+ea+Martin,+Adam

Lecturers in the 2012 Beijing QG summer school:
Abhay Ashtekar (Penn State Univ, USA)
Benjamin Bahr (Cambridge Univ, UK)
John Barrett (Univ of Nottingham, UK)
Jonathan Engle (Florida Atlantic Univ, USA)
Thomas Krajewski (Univ of Provence & CPT Marseille, France)
Jerzy Lewandowski (Univ of Warsaw, Poland)
Etera Livine (ENS de Lyon, France)

MG13 (Stockholm July) 22 out of 30 invited speakers have posted abstract summaries of their talks
Strings 2012(Munich July) 1 out of the 43 invited speakers has posted the title of his talk (about QG alternatives to string). This situation has persisted for over 5 weeks. It will be interesting to see what other topics appear in the lineup when more titles are eventually posted.
Some MG13 parallel sessions-- (chairs)
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/parallel_data_grid.pdf
Monday 2 July "QG Phenomenology"--(Amelino-Camelia)
Tuesday 3 July "Loop Quantum Gravity, Quantum Geometry, Spin Foams"-- (Lewandowski)
Thursday 5 July "Asymptotic Safety and Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Gravity"-- (Mielke)
Thursday 5 July "String Theory"-- (Henningson)
Friday 6 July "Loop Quantum Gravity: Cosmology and Black Holes"-- (Pullin, Singh)

marcus · May 9, 2012

Finally as of 9 May two more speakers at Strings 2012 have posted talk titles!
I was beginning to worry. Nicolai posted his title right around 31 March, so for over 5 weeks his was the only talk listed on the schedule.
Now we have 3 out of 43.
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html

==quote from program as of 9 May==
...
M. Gaberdiel Minimal Model Holography
D. Gaiotto tba
C. Gomez tba
D. Gross tba
J. Heckman tba
G. Horowitz tba
N. Iqbal tba
S. Kachru tba
A. Karch Recent Applications of the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence to QCD and Condensed Matter Physics
Z. Komargodski tba
S. Kortner tba
C. Kounnas tba
J. Maldacena tba
H. Nicolai Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey
...
==endquote==

marcus · May 14, 2012

Strings 2012 has now listed titles for 5 out of the 43 invited talks:

M. Gaberdiel Minimal Model Holography

A. Karch* Recent Applications of the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence to QCD and Condensed Matter Physics

H. Nicolai* Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey

A. Strominger Progress in dS/CFT

X. Yin* Higher Spin Holography

Conference starts in about 2 months from now.
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html

*Three of the five speakers here are listed as giving "overview" talks. This is a special category of talks which I guess will be allotted extra time and intended to survey what the organizers think are the main areas of current research activity and/or particular interest to the audience.
========
I'm tryng out the idea of just recording of popular stringy book sales on a once every four months basis. So far about all the record shows is a huge jump in popularity with the appearance of the multiverse books Grand Design and Hidden Universe (by Hawking and by Greene respectively) in September 2010 and January 2011.
Even though it's not for the record I'll take a midmonth average for May as a spot check to see how things are going.

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
July 2009           6485
November 2009         NA
March 2010          7521
July 2010           8461
November 2010       2220
March 2011           349
July 2011           1257
November 2011       1243
March 2012          3235

14 May 3925
15 May ...
16 May ...

At noon Pacific on 14 May the top five stringy books (e-grand, e-elegant, grand, e-hidden, hardcover-grand) ranked 2631, 2993, 3307, 4707, 5985, for an average of 3925.

Sociology of Physics: comment and indices

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