Searching for universities to do my PhD on foundations of quantum mechanics

[Jamister]

I want to do my Phd on foundations of quantum mechanics, but I don't find researchers in the U.S.A that work on that. Is there a good way to search other than to go to each university and go over the PI's?
Thanks

 

[Choppy]

If you're not already - start reading as much as you can about current research in that field. Look for review articles. Look for the common references. One thing you'll start to find, if you're reading enough is that there tend to be a few core groups that are working on a specific topic. Those groups are often a good place to start.

 

[mpresic3]

You could also look in mathematics departments for work in mathematical physics. Also in physics departments you are more likely to get funding with an advisor who is not looking at "foundations", but what he can deliver. In some schools, any work into "foundations" means you will have a teaching assistantship for a long time, and that will increase the time that will be required for thesis completion. This is something to consider.

 

[Jamister]

If you're not already - start reading as much as you can about current research in that field. Look for review articles. Look for the common references. One thing you'll start to find, if you're reading enough is that there tend to be a few core groups that are working on a specific topic. Those groups are often a good place to start.

But how do I find these groups?

 

[Vanadium 50]

But how do I find these groups?

By doing what Choppy said:

start reading as much as you can about current research in that field. Look for review articles. Look for the common references.

If you don't want to do this (or aren't doing it already), why do you want to get a PhD in this field and will be doing this for the rest of your life?

 

[Jamister]

By doing what Choppy said:



If you don't want to do this (or aren't doing it already), why do you want to get a PhD in this field and will be doing this for the rest of your life?

I do want to read about current research, and I already started study about the foundations of QM, but the thing is I want to know if there will be an option to do research on it in the USA, because I didn't find a single researcher from USA working on it and I looked in many universities in the USA. So you think I'm not looking good? do you know researchers that work on it in the USA?

 

[f95toli]

I do want to read about current research, and I already started study about the foundations of QM, but the thing is I want to know if there will be an option to do research on it in the USA, because I didn't find a single researcher from USA working on it and I looked in many universities in the USA. So you think I'm not looking good? do you know researchers that work on it in the USA?

It took me about 30 seconds to find a research group working on foundations in the USA
I just put "foundations quantum" in Google Scholar and made sure I only looked at papers published in the past two years.

 

[mathwonk]

Based on this article in the NYT, if I were in your situation, I would ask Sean Carroll of CalTech for advice:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/opinion/sunday/quantum-physics.html

 

[berkeman]

Based on this article in the NYT, if I were in your situation, I would ask Sean Carroll of CalTech for advice:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/opinion/sunday/quantum-physics.html

Nuts. Not exactly a paywall, but I'm not seeing a way to close this obnoxious splash screen so that I can read the article without creating an account. Am I missing an "X" somewhere?

 

[mathwonk]

Sorry, I must have an account so that screen did not come up for me.

Briefly he says almost no one has thought about the foundations for some 50 years or more, perhaps ever since Bohr "bested" Einstein in the public relations arena debating in the 1930's, arguing that we don't need to understand them; but today Dr. Carroll thinks we would be well advised to try harder to do so, and that there are indeed people who take it very seriously.

You might also be able to log in with google and read a few free articles a month.

Here's the headline and sub head:

Even Physicists Don’t Understand Quantum Mechanics
Worse, they don’t seem to want to understand it.
By Sean Carroll
Dr. Carroll is a physicist.

• Sept. 7, 2019

 

[gmax137]

maybe try Travis Norsen at smith college in Northampton, Mass

 

[Jamister]

Based on this article in the NYT, if I were in your situation, I would ask Sean Carroll of CalTech for advice:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/opinion/sunday/quantum-physics.html

Asking him is weird, he is not supposed to help me. And If I do ask him, what will I ask? give me names of PI's?

 

[CrysPhys]

Asking him is weird, he is not supposed to help me. And If I do ask him, what will I ask? give me names of PI's?

Very few people succeed in a professional career totally on their own. Networking is key. What have you got to lose? Email him. Tell him you read his article. Tell him of your interests, and ask for advice on how to proceed. At worst, you won't get any reply [in rare instances, the worst is a nasty reply, rather than no reply]. At best, he'll give you the guidance you seek.

 

[mathwonk]

Well, in his article he said this is an interesting subject that has been much neglected, and he thinks it deserves more investigation. Thus I would think you are exactly the kind of person he wrote the article for. So I would suggest asking him exactly for the information that you asked us for.

 

[atyy]

You may get ideas from these 2 blogs, one about quantum foundations, the other about quantum information.

http://mattleifer.info/
https://quantumfrontiers.com/

 

[gwnorth]

Nuts. Not exactly a paywall, but I'm not seeing a way to close this obnoxious splash screen so that I can read the article without creating an account. Am I missing an "X" somewhere?

I was recently introduced to a very handy free app called "Pocket". It's a bit like Pinterest in that there is a browser extension button that allows you to pin an article into your own library. When it does that it makes a copy rather than just linking to the article which bypasses the paywall. I did it with this article and was able to read it no problem.

 

[radium]

Several people at Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Canada work in quantum foundations. The faculty usually take graduate students through the University of Waterloo, and they also have a one year masters program in theoretical physics. It’s quite an interesting place.