Sociology of Physics: comment and indices

marcus · Jul 4, 2012

Annual research posting rates for past years, from the indicated Inspire database searches. Annualized figures for 2012, as of 4 July = 186/366:

LOOP RESEARCH BY YEAR (loop quantum gravity, loop quantum cosmology, spin foam)

2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (77 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (120 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (142 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (144 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (151 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (214 found)
2012 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (155 annualized from 79 found)

STRING,MEMBRANE,AdS/CFT RESEARCH BY YEAR
(search terms "string model", "membrane model" and "AdS/CFT correspondence")

2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1029 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1048 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1132 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1207 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1048 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1097 found)
2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (815 annualized from 414 found)
==============

2012 first-time faculty appointments for some young people engaged in Loop-and-allied QG research:
Hanno Sahlmann APCTP, Pohang -> Erlangen - Nuremberg U. (faculty)
James Ryan Potsdam, Max Planck Inst. -> UNAM, Mexico (tenure track)
Razvan Gurau Perimeter Inst. -> CNRS, France (research faculty)
Leonardo Modesto Perimeter Inst. -> Fudan U., Shanghai (faculty)
Source: http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
==============
People engaged to lecture at the Beijing QG summer school 12-18 August 2012:
Abhay Ashtekar (Penn State, USA)
Benjamin Bahr Cambridge Univ, UK)
John Barrett (Univ of Nottingham, UK)
Jonathan Engle (Florida Atlantic Univ, USA)
Thomas Krajewski (Univ of Provence, France)
Jerzy Lewandowski (Univ of Warsaw, Poland)
Etera Livine (Ecole Normal Univ of Lyon)
Source: http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
There will also be QG schools in other places this year: Vienna in September and Erlangen in October.

marcus · Jul 8, 2012

The annual Strings conference starts in two weeks, on Monday 23 July in Munich.
The program posted online shows the titles of 13 of the 45 expected talks.

T. Dimofte Building blocks in 3d SCFT
M. Gaberdiel Minimal Model Holography
G. Horowitz Why General Relativity is like a High Temperature Superconductor
N. Iqbal Friedel oscillations and horizon charge in 1D holographic liquids
A. Karch Recent Applications of the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence to QCD and Condensed Matter Physics
H. Nicolai Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey
S. Raju Scattering Amplitudes and AdS/CFT Correlators
J. Schwarz Opening Lecture
A. Strominger Progress in dS/CFT
A. Uranga Update on string phenomenology
E. Witten Superstring Perturbation Theory Revisited
M. Yamazaki Networks, Quivers and 3-manifolds
X. Yin Higher Spin Holography
=========

So far 381 people have registered to attend the conference, of which roughly HALF are listed as "student", "graduate student", "PhD student", or "postdoc."
In raw numbers attendance is comparable to past years.
Registered participants in the annual conference (some years omitted for brevity)

Code:

Strings 2003 Kyoto     396
Strings 2005 Toronto   415
Strings 2007 Madrid    440
Strings 2009 Rome      450
Strings 2011 Uppsala   265
Strings 2012 Munich    381 (prelim.)

The particle theory job picture for this year (Usa + Canada, first-time faculty positions) is the same as it was 8 June, one month ago. Twelve HEP theorists have offers, of whom one is a string theorist. Faculty hiring for the fall semester could still change but now seems complete.

Annual first time faculty hires in theoretical particle physics (Usa + Canada)
(Up through 2010, the rates are averaged over 3 years intervals.)

Code:

period          1999-2001   2002-2004   2005-2007   2008-2010  2011   2012
HEP theory hires   18         24          23          13        11     12
string hires        9          8           6           2         1      1

The source used for the preliminary 2012 estimates: http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
Source for previous years: http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08

Links:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks:
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
http://pirsa.org/

marcus · Jul 13, 2012

In past years (e.g. Madrid, Rome) a cap was placed on attendance at the annual Strings conference, and registration was only allowed up to a certain limit (440, 450...). This year the Munich website's homepage initially mentioned a figure of 500, not as a cap but simply a rough indication of expected size based on past conferences. So far, as of 13 July, 384 people have registered to attend the conference, of which roughly half are listed as "student", "graduate student", "PhD student", or "postdoc."

Registered participants in the annual conference (some years omitted for brevity)

Code:

Strings 2003 Kyoto     396
Strings 2005 Toronto   415
Strings 2007 Madrid    440
Strings 2009 Rome      450
Strings 2011 Uppsala   265
Strings 2012 Munich    384 (prelim.)
Strings 2013 Seoul  ...

Strings 2013 will be held in Seoul, June 24-28.
This year's conference starts on Monday 23 July. As of today titles of 23 of the 45 planned talks are listed. The strongest common theme appears to be boundary CFT-based holography, also called gauge/gravity correspondence--I've highlighted the CFT/holo talks:

F. Alday Mixed correlators in N=4 SYM
M. Cvetič Non-perturbative Effects in F-theory Compactifications
T. Dimofte Building blocks in 3d SCFT
M. Gaberdiel Minimal Model Holography
D. Gross Outlook/Vision
G. Horowitz Why General Relativity is like a High Temperature Superconductor
N. Iqbal Friedel oscillations and horizon charge in 1D holographic liquids
A. Karch Recent Applications of the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence to QCD and Condensed Matter Physics
S. Kachru New Horizons in Finite Density Field Theory and String Theory
S. Kortner Status and latest results of the LHC
H. Nicolai Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey
H.P. Nilles Heterotic supersymmetry: the legacy of D=10 and N=4
H. Ooguri Conference Summary
E. Rabinovici (In) Stabilities and complementarity in AdS/CFT
S. Raju Scattering Amplitudes and AdS/CFT Correlators
O. Schlotterer Hidden simplicity in superstring amplitudes
J. Schwarz Opening Lecture
A. Strominger Progress in dS/CFT
A. Uranga Update on string phenomenology
C. Vafa Topological Strings and Their Diverse Applications
E. Witten Superstring Perturbation Theory Revisited
M. Yamazaki Networks, Quivers and 3-manifolds
X. Yin Higher Spin Holography

marcus · Jul 17, 2012

We haven't checked the phenomenology side of Loop gravity/cosmology research for quite a while.

Here's a link that gets (desy key) LQG and LQC papers that mostly have to do with pheno, i.e. with opportunities for TESTING.
http://www-library.desy.de/cgi-bin/spiface/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+%28DK+LOOP+SPACE+AND+%28QUANTUM+GRAVITY+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%29+%29+AND+%28GRAVITATIONAL+RADIATION+OR+PRIMORDIAL+OR+INFLATION+OR+POWER+SPECTRUM+OR+COSMIC+BACKGROUND+RADIATION%29+&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=citecount%28d%29
This ranks by cites and gets around 108 papers.

Let's restrict to ones that appeared 2009 or later:
http://www-library.desy.de/cgi-bin/spiface/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+%28DK+LOOP+SPACE+AND+%28QUANTUM+GRAVITY+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%29+%29+AND+%28GRAVITATIONAL+RADIATION+OR+PRIMORDIAL+OR+inflation+or+POWER+SPECTRUM+OR+COSMIC+BACKGROUND+RADIATION%29+AND+DATE%3E2008&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=citecount%28d%29

This gets 58 papers. Again they are ranked by cites.
I found this link by going back to post #274 on page 18 of this thread.
If that one give difficulty, try this:
http://www-library.desy.de/cgi-bin/spiface/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+(dk+loop+space+and+(quantum+gravity+or+quantum+cosmology)+)+and+(gravitational+radiation+or+primordial+or+inflation+or+power+spectrum+or+cosmic+background)+and+date%3E2008&SEQUENCE=CITECOUNT(D)&SKIP=25
It only gets 56 of the 58 but works more reliably.

marcus · Jul 18, 2012

Checking the popular book market, for July midmonth figures, here are some noon stringy topfive salesrank averages.
12 July 1987
13 July 2234
14 July 1865
15 July 2000
16 July 2391
17 July 2809
18 July 3230
Last week was somehat atypical since Charlie Rose Show had Brian Greene on 9 July and Lisa Randall on 12th, boosting string book sales and lowering the salesrank index. From 12th to 18th we see the index gradually rising back towards its earlier level.

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
July 2009           6485
November 2009         NA
March 2010          7521
July 2010           8461
November 2010       2220
March 2011           349
July 2011           1257
November 2011       1243
March 2012          3235 
July 2012           2359

(1987+2234+1865+2000+2391+2809+3230)/7 = 2359

marcus · Jul 21, 2012

Code:

Strings 2003 Kyoto     396
Strings 2005 Toronto   415
Strings 2007 Madrid    440
Strings 2009 Rome      450
Strings 2011 Uppsala   265
Strings 2012 Munich    385
Strings 2013 Seoul  ...

Links:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/String_Theory
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks:
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
http://pirsa.org/

marcus · Jul 22, 2012

The organizers of Strings 2012 have done what I think is an excellent job. The full list of 45 scheduled talks is posted and they seem to have gotten people to prepare talks on a variety of string-related topics. Neither overly peripheral nor too much on the same topic, e.g. AdS/CFT.
Here's the 2012 participants list (385):
http://indico.mpp.mpg.de/indico/confRegistrantsDisplay.py/list?confId=1040

Here's the 2011 participants list (265) for comparison
https://www.akademikonferens.se/list.jsf?conf=strings2011-S

Here's this year's list of talks.
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html

And a miscellaneous bit of local color:
"Nevertheless, there is a feeling in the air that the postmodern epoch particle physics is drawing to a close." http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2007/01/cern-th-2007.html
And notes from the CERN Christmas party December 2006.

It's disappointing that so far the Inspire crew has not continued Spires Annual Topcite 100 List.
Inspire is the new HEP database that replaces Spires, and after every year Spires used to post a list of the 50 or 100 HEP papers that had been most highy cited during that year. (Spires also posted an All-Time Topcite list each year but ranking based on all-time cumulative totals changed little and was less informative about the current situation.)
The Annual Topcite list for last year has not yet been made available. So we are still missing the information needed to keep track of this research interest index.

Number of recent string papers making the top fifty in the Spires HEP annual topcite list
(some years omitted for brevity)

Code:

year                2001    2003    2005    2007    2009    2010   2011  
recent top-50 work   12       6       2       1      1       0      NA

Here a paper is counted as recent if it appeared any time in the past five years. Annual topcite lists gauge the currently perceived significance of recent work by how often it was cited by other researchers during the given year.

Links to sources:
2001 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2001/annual.shtml (twelve)
2003 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2003/annual.shtml (six)
2005 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2005/annual.shtml (two)
2007 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2007/annual.shtml (one)
2009 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2009/annual.shtml (one)
2010 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2010/annual.shtml (zero)

marcus · Jul 25, 2012

Code:

Strings 2003 Kyoto     396
Strings 2005 Toronto   415
Strings 2007 Madrid    440
Strings 2009 Rome      450
Strings 2011 Uppsala   265
Strings 2012 Munich    385
Strings 2013 Seoul  ...

Links:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm
http://www.physics.org/toplistdetail.asp?id=28 (popular Higgs explanations)
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/String_Theory
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks:
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
http://pirsa.org/[/QUOTE]

marcus · Aug 7, 2012

I hadn't sampled the pop-string book market for a couple of weeks so made a spot check at noon Pacifictime today 7 August. The 5 most popular stringy books (warped, elegant, fabric, hidden, grand) ranked (950+4398+4652+5411+8711)/5 for an average of 4824. Here are some past midmonth topfive salesrank averages for comparison:

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
July 2009           6485
November 2009         NA
March 2010          7521
July 2010           8461
November 2010       2220
March 2011           349
July 2011           1257
November 2011       1243
March 2012          3235 
July 2012           2359
7 August            4824 (temporary spot check)

Faculty hiring for Autumn 2012 now seems to be complete. The particle theory job picture for this year (Usa + Canada, first-time faculty positions) is the same as it was 8 June, two months ago. Twelve HEP theorists have offers, of whom one is a string theorist.

Annual first time faculty hires in theoretical particle physics (Usa + Canada)
(Up through 2010, the rates are averaged over 3 years intervals.)

Code:

period          1999-2001   2002-2004   2005-2007   2008-2010  2011   2012
HEP theory hires   18         24          23          13        11     12
string hires        9          8           6           2         1      1

The source used for the preliminary 2012 estimates: http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
Source for previous years: http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08

Links:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/String_Theory
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks:
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
http://pirsa.org/
Popular Higgs explanations:
http://www.physics.org/toplistdetail.asp?id=28
CERN Christmas party 2006:
http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2007/01/cern-th-2007.html

marcus · Aug 9, 2012

marcus · Sep 1, 2012

marcus · Sep 1, 2012

A spot check of the pop-string book market on 1 September at noon Pacific time showed the five most popular stringy books (e-elegant, grand, parallel, hidden, h-grand) had salesranks 7349, 8695, 8747, 10814, 12315 for an average rank of 9584

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
July 2009           6485
November 2009         NA
March 2010          7521
July 2010           8461
November 2010       2220
March 2011           349
July 2011           1257
November 2011       1243
March 2012          3235 
July 2012           2359
7 August            4824 (temporary spot check)
1 September         9584 (temporary spot check)

marcus · Sep 6, 2012

Spot check on the year's publications of 6 September (250/366)
148 annualized from 101 found
789 annualized from 539 found

marcus · Sep 7, 2012

Here are some 2012 first-time faculty hires (Loop-and-allied community) and some postdoc/fellowship news giving some idea of the career prospects currently.
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/

==quote==
2012 Postdoc Positions:
...
Cambridge U., DAMTP (philosophy of cosmology) - Offer to: David Sloan (Utrecht; accepted)
...
Louisana State U. (loop quantum gravity & cosmology) - Offer to: Edward Wilson-Ewing (Marseille; accepted)

Penn State U. (Fundamental Gravitational Theory, GR/QC) - Offer to: Yasha Neiman (Tel Aviv; accepted), Thomas Cailleteau (LPSC, Grenoble; accepted), Marc Geiller (APC, Paris; accepted), Norbert Bodendorfer (Erlangen - Nuremberg U.)

Perimeter Institute (quantum gravity, cosmology, ...) - Offer to: Flavio Mercati (Zaragoza), Philipp Höhn (Utrecht; accepted), Ryszard Kostecki (Warsaw; accepted)
...
Warsaw U. (loop quantum gravity) - Offer to: Emanuele Alesci (Erlangen; accepted)

2012 External Fellowships:

Francesca Vidotto Grenoble -> Utrecht (Rubicon Fellowship)
William Nelson Penn State U. -> Nijmegen (Marie Curie)
Muxin Han Marseille -> Marseille (Marie Curie)

2012 Tenure Track/Faculty Positions:
...
Hanno Sahlmann APCTP, Pohang -> Erlangen - Nuremberg U. (faculty)
James Ryan Potsdam, Max Planck Inst. -> UNAM, Mexico (tenure track) - declined
Razvan Gurau Perimeter Inst. -> CNRS, France (research position)
Leonardo Modesto Perimeter Inst. -> Fudan U., Shanghai (faculty)
==endquote==Early universe phenomenology links:

This gets (desy key) LQG and LQC papers that mostly have to do with pheno, i.e. with prospects/opportunities for TESTING, in one way or another.
http://www-library.desy.de/cgi-bin/spiface/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+%28DK+LOOP+SPACE+AND+%28QUANTUM+GRAVITY+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%29+%29+AND+%28GRAVITATIONAL+RADIATION+OR+PRIMORDIAL+OR+INFLATION+OR+POWER+SPECTRUM+OR+COSMIC+BACKGROUND+RADIATION%29+&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=citecount%28d%29
This ranks by cites and currently gets 113 papers. It was slow just now, had to wait some 30 seconds.

Let's restrict to ones that appeared 2009 or later:
http://www-library.desy.de/cgi-bin/spiface/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+%28DK+LOOP+SPACE+AND+%28QUANTUM+GRAVITY+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%29+%29+AND+%28GRAVITATIONAL+RADIATION+OR+PRIMORDIAL+OR+inflation+or+POWER+SPECTRUM+OR+COSMIC+BACKGROUND+RADIATION%29+AND+DATE%3E2008&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=citecount%28d%29
As of today this gets 63 papers. Again they are ranked by cites.
Here is the same search but without ordering by citecount:
http://www-library.desy.de/cgi-bin/spiface/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+%28DK+LOOP+SPACE+AND+%28QUANTUM+GRAVITY+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%29+%29+AND+%28GRAVITATIONAL+RADIATION+OR+PRIMORDIAL+OR+inflation+or+POWER+SPECTRUM+OR+COSMIC+BACKGROUND+RADIATION%29+AND+DATE%3E2008&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=ds%28d%29

It worked immediately. But here's a reduced version just in case a hitch develops:
http://www-library.desy.de/cgi-bin/spiface/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+(dk+loop+space+and+(quantum+gravity+or+quantum+cosmology)+)+and+(gravitational+radiation+or+primordial+or+inflation+or+power+spectrum+or+cosmic+background)+and+date%3E2008&SEQUENCE=CITECOUNT(D)&SKIP=25 Links:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/String_Theory
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks:
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Events/Loops_13/Loops_13/
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
http://pirsa.org/
http://relativity.phys.lsu.edu/ilqgs/
Popular Higgs explanations:
http://www.physics.org/toplistdetail.asp?id=28
CERN Christmas party 2006:
http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2007/01/cern-th-2007.html

marcus · Sep 14, 2012

There was a surge of multiverse book sales that started in September 2010. This may have eased off some. For brevity I'm only recording midmonth salesrank averages for March, July, November so the September ratings are just a temporary check to see how things are going and will be discarded.

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
July 2009           6485
November 2009         NA
March 2010          7521
July 2010           8461
November 2010       2220
March 2011           349
July 2011           1257
November 2011       1243
March 2012          3235 
July 2012           2359
14 September     7886 (temporary spot check)
15 September       ... 
16 September      ...

marcus · Sep 16, 2012

One way to get an idea of what is going on in a research field is to look at how the programs of the main international conferences in that field are shaping up. It gives an idea of what the organizers think their research community is interested in, and where they think the important developments are occurring. For Quantum Relativists one such is the triennial "GR" conference. The next occurrence will be "GR20" in Warsaw July 2013. The invitation to GR20 just appeared this month and there is descriptive online material. Here is the list of parallel sessions.

http://gr20-amaldi10.edu.pl/index.php?id=18

Parallel sessions: Title (Chairpersons)
A1: Exact solutions and their interpretation (J. Bicak, J. Tafel)
A2: Mathematical relativity and other progress in classical gravity theory (P. Chrusciel)
A3: Modified gravity theories (P. Horava)
A4: Complex and conformal methods in classical and quantum gravity (M. Dunajski)
B1: Relativistic astrophysics (C. Miller, I. Mandel)
B2: Numerical relativity and astrophysical applications (N. Padmanabhan)
B3: Numerical relativity--methods, theoretical gravity and high energy applications (D. Garfinkle)
B4: Analytic approximations, perturbation theory, effective field theory methods and their applications (V. Cardoso, R. Porto)
B5: Observational cosmology (L. Verde)
B6: Theoretical/mathematical cosmology (R. Durrer)
C5: Experimental gravitation (J. Mueller, C. Laemmerzahl)
D1: Loop quantum gravity and spin foams (T. Pawlowski, B. Dittrich)
D2: Strings, branes and M-theory (R. Gopakumar)
D3: Causal sets, causal dynamical triangulations, non-commutative geometry,
and other approaches to quantum gravity (J. Jurkiewicz)
D4: Quantum fields in curved space-time, semiclassical gravity, quantum gravity phenomenology,
and analog models (C. Fewster, S. Liberati)
================
Time permitting, I'll get a midmonth average for September around noon today. Yes, time did permit:
The top five stringy books at noon 16 September (e-fabric, e-elegant, grand, e-grand, hidden) ranked
3811+4313+5725+7351+7922 for an average of 5824
The 2-year multiverse craze in the pop-string market that began in September 2010 does seem to have eased off.
Pre-multiverse stringy favorites (such as Elegant and Fabric) are coming back up the list and supplanting the recent more multiversy Grand Design and Hidden Reality.

Code:

14 September     7886 
15 September       7778 
16 September      5824

The midmonth average comes out 7163

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
July 2009           6485
November 2009         NA
March 2010          7521
July 2010           8461
November 2010       2220
March 2011           349
July 2011           1257
November 2011       1243
March 2012          3235 
July 2012           2359
September 2012      7163

For brevity, only the March, July, November readings will be retained.

Links:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/String_Theory
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks:
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Events/Loops_13/Loops_13/
http://gr20-amaldi10.edu.pl/index.php?id=18
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Events/Experimental_Search_for_QG/Experimental_Search_for_Quantum_Gravity%3A_the_hard_facts/
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
http://pirsa.org/
http://relativity.phys.lsu.edu/ilqgs/
Popular Higgs explanations:
http://www.physics.org/toplistdetail.asp?id=28
CERN Christmas party 2006:
http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2007/01/cern-th-2007.html

marcus · Sep 18, 2012

marcus · Sep 28, 2012

Some talk titles and abstracts are now posted for the October conference at Perimeter called "Experimental Search for Quantum Gravity"
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/Events/Experimental_Search_for_QG/Abstracts/

Spot check of pop string book market as of midday 28 September: the top five (fabric, grand, e-elegant, hidden, e-grand) ranked 6035, 6955, 7852, 10001, 10552 for an average of 8224. Multiverse craze at least temporarily eased off, it seems, and salesrank standings back up around the pre-September 2010 levels.

Another check of research posting rates, as of 28 September. For comparison with rates in past years, here are annualized figures for 2012 from the indicated Inspire database searches.
28 September = 272/366.

LOOP RESEARCH BY YEAR (loop quantum gravity, loop quantum cosmology, spin foam)
2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (77 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (120 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (142 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (143 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (151 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (215 found)
2012 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (152 annualized from 113 found)

STRING,MEMBRANE,AdS/CFT RESEARCH BY YEAR
(search terms "string model", "membrane model" and "AdS/CFT correspondence")
2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1029 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1048 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1131 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1207 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1062 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1106 found)
2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (791 annualized from 588 found)

For nearly the whole month of November there will be a workshop in Stockholm on Early Universe Cosmology. It runs 5-30 November at NORDITA.
http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=2998
There are four organizers: Bojowald, Giesel, Hossenfelder, Sakellariadou. These are familiar names to anyone who follows research in LQG, LQC, and QG phenomenology.

Here is the participants list:
http://agenda.albanova.se/confRegistrantsDisplay.py/list?confId=2998
A sampling of names from the list includes:
Prof. BRANDENBERGER, Robert
Dr. CALCAGNI, Gianluca
Prof. KIEFER, Claus
Prof. LEWANDOWSKI, Jerzy
Prof. MAVROMATOS, Nikolaos
Prof. NELSON, Will
Dr. STEINACKER, Harold
Prof. SZYDLOWSKI, Marek
Prof. THIEMANN, Thomas
Dr. VIDOTTO, Francesca

marcus · Sep 29, 2012

This link gives an historical overview of first-time faculty hires for HEP-theory in Usa and Canada since around 1994
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
It has been updated through 2011 and presumably will be updated to cover 2012 now that hiring is complete for the year.
For several months I haven't done a simple check of Quantum Cosmology papers (DESY keyword) that have appeared since 2008, a convenient cutoff. That is in 2009 or later. Here goes:
http://www-library.desy.de/cgi-bin/spiface/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+DK+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY+AND+DATE%3E2008&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=citecount%28d%29
The first time I tried this today it worked and found 370 some papers ranked by cite-count. Subsequently the link would not work, but then did so later in the day.
Here's a link to papers relevant to testing bounce cosmology models--what kind of traces to look for in the Cosmic Microwave Background. The papers are 2009 or later, the search currently finds 64:
http://www-library.desy.de/cgi-bin/spiface/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+%28DK+LOOP+SPACE+AND+%28QUANTUM+GRAVITY+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%29+%29+AND+%28GRAVITATIONAL+RADIATION+OR+PRIMORDIAL+OR+inflation+or+POWER+SPECTRUM+OR+COSMIC+BACKGROUND+RADIATION%29+AND+DATE%3E2008&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=citecount%28d%29

Links:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/String_Theory
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks:
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Events/Loops_13/Loops_13/
http://gr20-amaldi10.edu.pl/index.php?id=18
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Events/Experimental_Search_for_QG/Experimental_Search_for_Quantum_Gravity%3A_the_hard_facts/
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
http://pirsa.org/
http://relativity.phys.lsu.edu/ilqgs/
Popular Higgs explanations:
http://www.physics.org/toplistdetail.asp?id=28
CERN Christmas party 2006:
http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2007/01/cern-th-2007.html

marcus · Oct 11, 2012

An interesting conference at Perimeter starts in about 10 days from now. Video of the talks is expected to be available online. The conference will bring Loop and other non-string QG researchers together with some String folk. I think this is a new trend. Getting different sects and persuasions together and talking to each other. So it is part of the sociology that we are watching.

Experimental Search for Quantum Gravity: the Hard Facts
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Events/Experimental_Search_for_QG/Experimental_Search_for_Quantum_Gravity%3A_the_hard_facts/
60 participants listed--nice mix of AsymSafeQG, LoopQG, observatory and lab QG, String...:
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/Events/Experimental_Search_for_QG/Participants/
Schedule:
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/Events/Experimental_Search_for_QG/Schedule/
Abstracts:
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/Events/Experimental_Search_for_QG/Schedule/

Last check of research posting rates was 2 weeks ago. Let's see how it looks as of 11 October. For comparison with rates in past years, the 2012 figures are annualized, based on the same Inspire database searches.
11 October = 285/366.

LOOP RESEARCH BY YEAR (loop quantum gravity, loop quantum cosmology, spin foam)
2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (77 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (120 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (142 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (143 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (151 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (215 found)
2012 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (153 annualized from 119 found)

STRING,MEMBRANE,AdS/CFT RESEARCH BY YEAR
(search terms "string model", "membrane model" and "AdS/CFT correspondence")
2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1029 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1048 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1131 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1207 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1063 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1106 found)
2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (789 annualized from 614 found)

Reminder: for nearly the whole month of November there will be a workshop in Stockholm on Early Universe Cosmology. It runs 5-30 November at NORDITA. It shows a similar "ecumenical" trend to the Perimeter Experimental Search for QG conference this month in the sense that it is drawing together people from a fairly broad range of QG approaches, including some String folks. Getting different tribes of researchers into conversation.
http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=2998

Faculty hiring for 2012 is unchanged from last report, and seems complete. The particle theory job picture for this year (Usa + Canada, first-time faculty positions) is the same as it was 8 June, four months ago. Twelve HEP theorists got offers, of whom one was a string theorist.

Annual first time faculty hires in theoretical particle physics (Usa + Canada)
(Up through 2010, the rates are averaged over 3 years intervals.)

Code:

period          1999-2001   2002-2004   2005-2007   2008-2010  2011   2012
HEP theory hires   18         24          23          13        11     12
string hires        9          8           6           2         1      1

The source used for 2012 estimates: http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
Source for previous years: http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08

Around noon on 11 October the top five stringy books (e-elegent, grand, hidden, fabric, parallel) ranked 4481, 4962, 6363, 6775, 8313 for an average of 7179.

marcus · Oct 12, 2012

At noon Pacific 12 October the stringy top five (grand, e-elegant, hidden, fabric, elegant) ranked 4305+6110+7810+8372+8749 for an average of 7069.
For a look at this index over time:

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
July 2009           6485
November 2009         NA
March 2010          7521
July 2010           8461
November 2010       2220
March 2011           349
July 2011           1257
November 2011       1243
March 2012          3235 
July 2012           2359
September 2012      7163 
11 October          7179
12 October          7069
...

For brevity, only the March, July, November readings will be retained. It looks like the multiverse craze lasted just about 2 years, from September 2010 through August 2012. It could of course revive, however for the time being 3 of the top five tend to be "pre-craze" and only two (grand design and hidden reality) are primarily multiverse books.

marcus · Oct 15, 2012

At noon Pacific 15 October the pop-string topfive (hidden, grand, e-elegant, elegant, h-hidden) ranked 5537+6800+7071+9847+10256 for an average of 7902

Code:

...
September 2012      7163 
11 October          7179
12 October          7069
13 October          7604
14 October          5620
15 October          7902
16 October          ...    
17 October          ...    
18 October          ...         
...

Links:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/String_Theory
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks:
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Events/Loops_13/Loops_13/
http://gr20-amaldi10.edu.pl/index.php?id=18
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Events/Experimental_Search_for_QG/Experimental_Search_for_Quantum_Gravity%3A_the_hard_facts/
http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=2998
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
Beijing: http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/show_news.php?id=8
Tianjin: https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=4048751#post4048751
Prague: http://ae100prg.mff.cuni.cz/abstracts
http://pirsa.org/
http://relativity.phys.lsu.edu/ilqgs/
Popular Higgs explanations:
http://www.physics.org/toplistdetail.asp?id=28
CERN Christmas party 2006:
http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2007/01/cern-th-2007.html[/QUOTE]

marcus · Oct 18, 2012

Midmonth pop-string salesrank index for October:
(7069+7604+5620+7902+7567+6815+8481)/7 = 7294

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
July 2009           6485
November 2009         NA
March 2010          7521
July 2010           8461
November 2010       2220
March 2011           349
July 2011           1257
November 2011       1243
March 2012          3235 
July 2012           2359
September 2012      7163 
October 2012        729412 October          7069
13 October          7604
14 October          5620
15 October          7902
16 October          7567
17 October          6815  
18 October          8481

Eventually for brevity only March, July, November readings will be retained. An interesting change occurred between July and September 2012. The index, which had been down for two years (starting September 2010) jumped back up to previous levels.

As a sample, at noon 18 October the stringy top five on Amazon physics bestseller list were grand, hidden, e-elegant, fabric, e-grand, with average salesrank (6469+7260+8965+9309+10400)/5 = 8481

Last check of research posting rates was one week ago. Here's how it looks as of 18 October. For comparison with rates in past years, the 2012 figures are annualized, based on the same Inspire database searches.
18 October = 292/366.

LOOP RESEARCH BY YEAR (loop quantum gravity, loop quantum cosmology, spin foam)
2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (77 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (120 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (142 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (143 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (151 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (215 found)
2012 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (153 annualized from 122 found)

STRING,MEMBRANE,AdS/CFT RESEARCH BY YEAR
(search terms "string model", "membrane model" and "AdS/CFT correspondence")
2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1029 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1048 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1131 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1207 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1063 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1106 found)
2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (786 annualized from 627 found)

marcus · Oct 30, 2012

In the indices we watch, there has been little change over the past two weeks. Here's how two research posting rates look as of 30 October = 304/366

(loop quantum gravity, loop quantum cosmology, spin foam)
2012 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (154 annualized from 128 found)

(search terms "string model", "membrane model" and "AdS/CFT correspondence")
2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (784 annualized from 651 found)Links:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/String_Theory
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks:
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Events/Loops_13/Loops_13/
http://gr20-amaldi10.edu.pl/index.php?id=18
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Events/Experimental_Search_for_QG/Experimental_Search_for_Quantum_Gravity%3A_the_hard_facts/
http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=2998
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
Beijing: http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/show_news.php?id=8
Tianjin: https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=4048751#post4048751
Prague: http://ae100prg.mff.cuni.cz/abstracts
http://pirsa.org/
http://relativity.phys.lsu.edu/ilqgs/
Popular Higgs explanations:
http://www.physics.org/toplistdetail.asp?id=28
CERN Christmas party 2006:
http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2007/01/cern-th-2007.html

marcus · Nov 4, 2012

marcus · Nov 10, 2012

Some of the links have changed, so here's a revised list:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/String_Theory
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks:
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/conferences/loops-13
http://gr20-amaldi10.edu.pl/index.php?id=18
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/conferences/experimental-search-quantum-gravity-hard-facts
http://pirsa.org/C12043
http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=2998
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
Beijing: http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/show_news.php?id=8
Tianjin: https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=4048751#post4048751
Prague: http://ae100prg.mff.cuni.cz/abstracts
http://pirsa.org/
http://relativity.phys.lsu.edu/ilqgs/
Popular Higgs explanations:
http://www.physics.org/toplistdetail.asp?id=28
CERN Christmas party 2006:
http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2007/01/cern-th-2007.html

A spot check of the pop-string book market at noon on 10 November:
The stringy top five that day (e-elegant, grand, e-hidden, parallel, fabric) ranked 5294, 5813, 6350, 6687, 7356 for an average of 6336.

marcus · Nov 12, 2012

2012 publication rates as per the above Inspire search records, as of 12 November.
for loop: 158 annualized from 137 found
and for string/M/AdSCFT: 821 annualized from 711 found.
In the popular market at noon 12 November the stringy top five (e-elegant,grand,hidden,elegant,fabric) ranked 5098, 6979, 7371, 7843, 8021 for an average of 7062.
Incidentally as I recall the e-edition of Trouble with Physics was number one Amazon bestseller from 15 September to 2 November, mainly due to temporary special price and has now (at regular price) gone down to #6 or #7 on the list.

marcus · Nov 13, 2012

Setting up for the midmonth stringy salesrank average

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
July 2009           6485
November 2009         NA
March 2010          7521
July 2010           8461
November 2010       2220
March 2011           349
July 2011           1257
November 2011       1243
March 2012          3235 
July 2012           2359
(September 2012     7163)
(October 2012       7294)

13 November         8578
14 November         ...
15 November         ...
16 November         ...
17 November         ...

Eventually for brevity only March, July, November readings will be retained. An interesting change occurred between July and September 2012. The index, which had been down for two years (starting September 2010) jumped back up to previous levels.

At noon 13 November the stringy top five on Amazon physics bestseller list (grand, hidden, fabric, e-elegant, elegant) ranked 7062, 7826, 8422, 9180, 10402 for an average of 8578.

Another conference/workshop link to add to the watch-list is a 2013 QG-etc. Zakopane school that has just been announced by Jerzy Lewandowski. It is planned for the first week of July, right before the GR-20 conference in Warsaw.
We can check the programs posted for such events to keep track of trends in the field: who is talking to whom about what. I'll fetch the link:
http://th-www.if.uj.edu.pl/school/2013/speakers&titles.html

marcus · Nov 14, 2012

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
November 2011       1243
March 2012          3235 
July 2012           2359
(September 2012     7163)
(October 2012       7294)

13 November         8578
14 November         7656
15 November         ...
16 November         ...
17 November         ...

At noon 14 November the stringy top five on Amazon physics bestseller list (grand, e-elegant, hidden, fabric, parallel) ranked 5052, 6230, 7392, 8109, 11495 for an average of 7656.

marcus · Nov 16, 2012

Code:

13 November         8578
14 November         7656
15 November         9914
16 November         6271 
17 November         ...

At noon 15 November the stringy top five on Amazon physics bestseller list (fabric, parallel, grand, e-elegant, h-grand) ranked 6470, 7030, 8254, 8688, 10442 for an average of 9914.
At noon 16 November grand, fabric, e-elegant, elegant, h-grand ranked 3360 5129, 6189, 8297, 8379 for average 6271.

Sociology of Physics: comment and indices

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