List of plenary talks at Loops '07 conference

[marcus]

had to say it:




Tyger Tyger. burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes!
On what wings dare he aspire!
What the hand, dare sieze the fire?

 

[garrett]

That is a wonderful poem.

I am very hopeful for this E8 gauge theory, and it's looking really good, but one also has to keep in mind that things that look good at first may just not work. Is there a Blake poem about enumerating chickens? ;)

I certainly will be immersing myself in E8 over the next year -- and I'll keep you posted. It will be fun. JB has a more recent writeup related to E8 here:

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/node19.html

 

[arivero]

I certainly will be immersing myself in E8 over the next year -- and I'll keep you posted. It will be fun. JB has a more recent writeup related to E8 here:

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/node19.html

It is amusing how we keep tripping with these group structures. If they happen to be useful after all, will we be able to keep telling that superstring theory was wrong?

 

[Kea]

If they happen to be useful after all, will we be able to keep telling that superstring theory was wrong?

The usefulness of E8 is a completely separate issue to the correctness (or not) of physical observables in string theory.

 

[garrett]

Quick post from Mexico:

Wow, I've had more good physics conversations with more people in the past two days than I have in the past ten years. I think my brain's going to explode.

My talk went well -- the E8 idea has attracted a lot of attention. Some quotes to amuse you:
"This is very interesting." -- L.S.
"It's not bull****." -- S.H.
That's actually high praise. ;)

The LQG community is very friendly -- such great people. There are a myriad of ideas branching out from this group in all directions, but all are working towards the same thing and connecting their ideas in fascinating ways. It is a very fertile community.

I think about half of PI is here -- it must be a fantastic place.

Must sleep now. Buenes Noches.

 

[ccdantas]

The LQG community is very friendly -- such great people. There are a myriad of ideas branching out from this group in all directions, but all are working towards the same thing and connecting their ideas in fascinating ways. It is a very fertile community.

I think about half of PI is here -- it must be a fantastic place.

Hi Garrett,

That's exactly the impression I have, even though based on my "very far far far away" geographical location.

Christine

 

[john baez]

"This is very interesting." -- L.S.
"It's not bull****." -- S.H.

I imagine L.S. is Lee Smolin.

I don't imagine S.H. is Stephen Hawking. Who is it?

 

[marcus]

I imagine L.S. is Lee Smolin.

I don't imagine S.H. is Stephen Hawking. Who is it?

My immediate guess was Bee Hossenfelder
She's posted around here some, as "Hossi"
and you probably bumped into her when visiting Perimeter.
phenomenologist, outspoken, funny, intolerant of fluff
what Garrett said is right, her comment WAS high praise

 

[marcus]

My talk went well -- .

Congratulations!

 

[marcus]

Speaking of "S.H." or Bee Hossenfelder, she has a nice report from the Loops conference (topic of this thread), which just ended.

http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2007/06/impressions-from-loops-07.html

Bee has pictures of SOME POSTERS ON THIS FORUM! There is a snapshot she took of Garrett and also, i think, of fh.
Also at least one other who has come here sometimes.

 

[marcus]

Yidun Wan's blog has more pictures from Morelia
http://www.wanyidun.com/blog_r2u/?p=131

Garrett has given us a lot of firsthand reporting on the talks and people there

William Donnelly and Alejandro Satz, who both gave papers, have blogs and we may be getting news from them.

I should list places to check

Bee
http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2007/06/impressions-from-loops-07.html
Garrett
http://deferentialgeometry.org/
Alejandro*
http://realityconditions.blogspot.com/
William*
http://williamdonnelly.blogspot.com/
Yidun
http://www.wanyidun.com/blog_r2u/?p=131

*Alejandro Satz and William Donnelly have been doing other stuff and haven't posted on blog much lately, but we might eventually see something so those links are included. Anybody think of someone I've missed?