Originally posted by alexsok
What are you guys talking about? what does it have to do with Einstein? he's a freshman, so yes he has the passionateness for string theory and other theoretical frameworks, so it would be only natural for him to have a desire to furnish his knowledge of the subjects, and the project he mulls, is perhaps the ideal way to this goal.
Cut him some slack guys, come on... :)
Nereid is mulling a project in quantum gravity phenomenology that could be accessible to anyone on this thread. (I can't say because it is his/her proposal and I can't predict how it would go.)
The proposal is in the "blow to quantum gravity" thread in the Gen Rel part of the Astronomy forum here at PF.
Phenomenology is not tied to anyone theoretical approach but is the business of testing all approaches impartially. One of the world's leading QG phenomenologists is Giovanni Amelino-Camelia.
If you go to arxiv.org search page and say "phenomenology" or "Amelino" you should get his recent papers talking about how to derive testable predictions from different approaches----comparing
string with loop with noncommutative geometry with DSR (doubly special relativity), or at least exploring what TESTABLE predictions these various theories might make.
Nereid thinks that one might be able to run a basic phenomenology test on some theory of QG just using some astronomy data that is openly available on the web (!).
I find this idea a bold one. I don't see any reason to reject it either. (But at this point I think none of the phenomenologists are getting
CONCLUSIVE results that finally settle things and cook the goose of one or another theory, they are just warming up to that: narrowing the field down at best, or going thru the motions.)
If you are interested in trying to check some QG hypothesis with astronomy data, post on that "blow to QG" thread and let Nereid know.
A side comment: the customary stance for phenomenologists to approach a theory with, at least initially, is "adversarial". The theorist puts up a theory, the phenomenologist calculates testable predictions and tries to falsify the theory or shoot it down or at least narrow down the range of possible parameters. this does not mean they are really bad guys. they do an important, essential job. Without some plan for testing, theory would be just dream castles in the clouds---fairyland---gee whiz salesmanship---whatever, not science as the term is usually understood anyway. So don't let the "adversarial" character turn you off, it is a very constructive line of work and a great help to the theorists by narrowing the possibilities down.
Nereid seems to know what he/she is doing, so I am waiting to see where it will go.
