Should I Pursue a Thesis Topic That Doesn't Initially Interest Me?

[Bertin]

Dear all,

I open this thread hoping you can give me some advice on the situation that follows. I am ending my master degree in Physics, with a strong curiosity—and almost complete ignorance of—quantum gravity. It is relevant here to let you know that the reason I am attracted to this/these problem(s) is that, I believe, searching a solution is process trying to marry radically different formalisms and, consequently, deeply revising how we conceive reality.

Now, a professor with very good reputation has proposed me to work on a specific problem relevant to understanding the ${\rm AdS}_5\times S^5/{\rm CFT}$ correspondence. The problem is that what he offers me to work on doesn't look too interesting to me, probably out of my ignorance too. On the other hand, no professor at my university seems to be working on quantum gravity. As a result, the question: should I go forward, engaging into a 6 month long semester project in a subject I am not sure I will enjoy? The reason I am still considering it is that 1. perhaps I discorver the problem interests me more that what I originally thought, 2. its reputation could help me find a PhD position—if I do a good job during the master thesis—and 3. no clear alternative is at sight.

 

[malawi_glenn]

What other projects do you have available?

Ads/CFT correspondence is fun IMO.

Just let me get this straight, you know basically nothing about quantum gravity, but still want to do your master thesis about it and pursue a career in it? Sounds a bit "unicorns and rainbows" to me.

Here is a story of my life. As undergrad, I had an almost unhealthy love for particle physics. QCD was my favorite topic at the time. I entered my PhD studies in a group by doing a master thesis about extended Higgs sectors. I thought "well, I will get to QCD later". Suddenly, it became clear to me how "messy" QCD research is (at least in that subfield that my research groups was focusing on, basically just writing endless lines of codes in Fortran). And I thought particle physics was supposed to be elegant and full of nice symmetries and what not. So, I stayed in doing research about the EW sector - learning to love that subject and also discovered new applications such as cosmology and such.

 

[Choppy]

I have to agree with the above. If you really want to work on something that you state you have a complete ignorance of... that's a flag for trouble. If there's no one studying quantum gravity in your current school, you'll either have to choose a different topic or find a different school. But I wouldn't recommend changing schools unless you're really, really sure that's the direction you want to go.

In my experience, the people who are really successful in their fields are the ones who gravitate toward it anyway. Rather than a professor handing them a problem to work on, they approach the professor with an idea and ask for guidance on it and they work out a project outline together. That said, you're looking at a master's project. Sometimes you need to build up the experience of simply working through a project before you can develop ideas of your own.

 

[malawi_glenn]

You wrote in another thread that you love math.
Consider all the fun math that is involved in ads/cft.

 

[Bertin]

Just as a general clarification, I am not arrogant or naive to the point of wanting to do quantum gravity without knowing anything about it. I have a strong curiosity towards it by the little things I read about it, and I would like to employ my mater thesis time to work on something related to that field, that is, do a master thesis that is "causally related" to working on quantum gravity in a possible future, and that serves as a teaser of what that could be like---a bit like malawi_glenn did with QCD---. To be more concrete, I think I would strongly prefer to work with a group doing research on gravitational physics. Meanwhile, I am not attracted to the way quantum gravity is tackled with AdS/CFT, at least as far as I could understand, hence the fact that I am considering other options. Does all this sound more reasonable to you both? In any case, thank you for your time :)

 

[Bertin]

In my experience, the people who are really successful in their fields are the ones who gravitate toward it anyway. Rather than a professor handing them a problem to work on, they approach the professor with an idea and ask for guidance on it and they work out a project outline together. That said, you're looking at a master's project.

And to reply to this, you got the point right. With all my courses still going on, I did not find the time to investigate the subject enough as to be able to go to a professor with a specific problem in mind.