Recent content by matt91a

I'm still baffled by this. If you want to do research then i assume you would want to do a PhD? If you do, departments won't even look at you unless you've had a formal education in maths and/or physics. (This applies in EU and UK. Not so sure about the US)

I was wondering if anyone could explain to me where the 2nd order terms in the gauge transformation h_{\mu\nu}\rightarrow h_{\mu\nu}-\xi_{\mu ,\nu}-\xi_{\nu, \mu}-\xi^{\alpha}h_{\mu\nu, \alpha}-\xi^{\alpha}_{,\mu}h_{\alpha\nu}-\xi^{\alpha}_{,\nu}h_{\mu\alpha}[/itex] come from. The...

Manchester.

What I'm saying is, if you haven't studied physics or maths at undergrad level then how do you know that you want to do theoretical physics?

Thanks for your reply but I'm afraid it doesn't shed any more light on it. I'm not sure if [itex]\xi^{\mu}(x)[\itex] being a Killing vector has anything to do with it.

In the weak field approximation, g_{\mu\nu}=\eta_{\mu\nu}+h_{\mu\nu} If we make a coordinate transformation of the form [itex]x^{\mu'}=x^{\mu}+\xi^{\mu}(x)[\itex] it changes [itex]h_{\mu\nu}[\itex] to [itex]h'_{\mu\nu}=h_{\mu\nu}+\xi_{\mu,\nu}+\xi_{\nu,\mu}+O(\xi^{2})[\itex] I...

I have a project this year called "Is gravity a gauge theory?". From my understanding, it is. But I was wondering if someone could quickly explain to me the way/ways of showing this and perhaps some papers or books that would be particularly useful. Thanks.

Depends what area you want to do your PhD in. MASt is purely theoretical.

I've heard a few people say that their offer for a place on part III was dependent on them getting an average degree mark of 80%. Although i have spoken to someone who's done part III and he said that a 1.1 should see you in.

CASM or part III is the 4th year of a Cambridge undergrad masters. An MPhil is masters degree done by research.

What I can't understand is why people want to study theoretical physics at graduate level but aren't even doing their undergraduate degree in physics and/or maths. I mean, surely you have more of a chance if you just switch your degree to physics and/or maths. I guess too many people have...

I'm reminded of what my adviser said to me, "If you want to go into academia you need 3 things: you need to be lucky, you need to be persistent, and you need to know how to take rejection"

I think a lot of people have a rosy tinted view of theory. They believe it to be glamorous and can easily dream of themselves being a theorist and sitting around all day solving equations. Then, ofcourse, reality hits them and they realize they may not be suited to it after all. This reality...

These guys are pretty good. They've also got some nice notes on TQFT and De Rham–Hodge Theory that are well worth checking out.

Hi folks, I'm a 3rd year student doing a BSc in Mathematics and Physics (in Scotland) and I was wondering if anyone could share with me their experiences of the MSc particles, strings and cosmology at Durham (previously MSc elementary particle theory) or any of the other similar courses at...