Sociology of Physics: comment and indices

marcus · Nov 17, 2012

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     (7163)
October       (7294)
November 2012       7792

Saturday 17 November the noon stringy topfive salesrank average was 6540, making the mid-month figure (averaging around the 15th of November) equal to 7792.
The top five titles on 17 November were grand, fabric, e-grand, hidden, e-elegant.
Publication, cites, jobs
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
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks
2013 and current:
http://pirsa.org/
http://relativity.phys.lsu.edu/ilqgs/
Zakopane http://th-www.if.uj.edu.pl/school/2013/speakers&titles.html
Loops http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/conferences/loops-13
Warsaw http://gr20-amaldi10.edu.pl/index.php?id=18
2012:
Perimeter http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/conferences/experimental-search-quantum-gravity-hard-facts
http://pirsa.org/C12043
Stockholm http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=2998
Beijing http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
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
Miscellany
http://www.physics.org/toplistdetail.asp?id=28
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/String_Theory
http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2007/01/cern-th-2007.html

marcus · Nov 20, 2012

Research posting rates based on the same database search in each consecutive year. The 2012 figures (as of 20 November = 325/366) are annualized for comparison.

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 (159 annualized from 141 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 (1211 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1077 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 (831 annualized from 738 found)

A similar search for quantum cosmology research since 2009:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=50&sc=0&of=hb (415 found, as of 20 November)
The Loop papers represent about half of the 415 quantum cosmology papers found by the search, and most of the highly cited ones.

The following "desy" search is specialized to find research that appeared 2009 or later exploring ways of TESTING quantum cosmology. It is slow, doesn't always work, gets comparatively few papers, but could be useful on occasion:
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
It worked just now, after a 20 second wait, and came up with 65 papers (related to QC phenomenology, i.e. observational testing.)

At noon 20 November, average salesrank of pop-string top five (grand, fabric, hidden, h-grand, elegant) was 7967.

marcus · Nov 23, 2012

As of 23 November
2012 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (161 annualized from 144 found)2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (837 annualized from 750 found)

marcus · Nov 28, 2012

marcus · Dec 12, 2012

marcus · Dec 18, 2012

The Loops 2013 conference organizers have begun posting a preliminary list of speakers. Here are a few of the names (more to be posted later.)

Eugenio Bianchi, Perimeter Institute

Steve Carlip, University of California, Davis

Fay Dowker, Imperial College, London

Razvan Gurau, Université Paris-Sud

Kirill Krasnov, University of Nottingham

Etera Livine, Ens de Lyon

Alejandro Perez, Centre de Physique Theorique

Silke Weinfurtner, SISSA

Update on research posting rates based on the same database search in each consecutive year. The 2012 figures (as of 18 December = 353/366) are annualized for comparison.

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 (162 annualized from 156 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 (1047 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 (1214 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1093 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1109 found)
2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (841 annualized from 811 found)

Quantum cosmology research since 2009:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=50&sc=0&of=hb (430 found, as of 18 December)
The Loop papers represent about half of the quantum cosmology papers found, and a larger percentage of those most highly cited: e.g. 27 out of the top 30 papers citewise.

This search is specialized to find research that appeared 2009 or later exploring ways of TESTING quantum cosmology (phenomenology, comparing QC models with observation.)
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
A bit slow, it worked just now after about a 10 second wait, and came up with 66 papers.

Publication, cites, jobs
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
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks
2013 and current:
http://pirsa.org/
http://relativity.phys.lsu.edu/ilqgs/
Zakopane http://th-www.if.uj.edu.pl/school/2013/speakers&titles.html
Loops http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/conferences/loops-13
Warsaw http://gr20-amaldi10.edu.pl/index.php?id=18
2012:
Perimeter http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/conferences/experimental-search-quantum-gravity-hard-facts
http://pirsa.org/C12043
Stockholm http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=2998
Beijing http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
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
Miscellany
http://www.physics.org/toplistdetail.asp?id=28
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/String_Theory
http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2007/01/cern-th-2007.html

marcus · Jan 8, 2013

marcus · Jan 12, 2013

It can shed some light on current developments in HEP-theory to look at the "short lists" of Physics departments in Usa and Canada--of young theoretical particle physicists being considered for first time faculty appointments. What are the research interests of those young researchers who have made it onto the short lists of departments at various universities where there are openings? This information is from
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
which does not claim completeness or complete reliability. It will be updated as the year progresses. Judging from past experience, final decisions on first-time faculty hires will probably all be made by some time in August or September.

Kfir Blum
Nathaniel Craig
Yanou Cui
Liam Fitzpatrick
Raphael Flauger
Daniel Green
Enrico Pajer
Rafael Porto
Surjeet Rajendran
Josh Ruderman
Jessie Shelton
Michael Trott
Andre Walker-Loud

The publication listings give some idea of the research interests and thus an indication of which lines of research physics departments see as promising and where they want additional faculty strength.

http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Blum,+K
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Craig,+N
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Cui,+Y
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Fitzpatrick,+L
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Flauger,+R
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+ea+Green,+Daniel
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Pajer,+E
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Porto,+R
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Rajendran,+S
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Ruderman,+J
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Shelton,+J
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Trott,+M
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Walker-Loud,+A

To put 2013 hiring in context here are:
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: http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
Source for previous years: http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08

As a footnote on the popular book market, as of noon 12 January the top five stringy titles (e-elegant, grand, fabric, e-grand, parallel) ranked 6065, 7348, 10518, 13643, 14481, for an average of 10411.
The following record put's that in context:
]

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
November 2012       7792 
(12 January 2013   10411)

marcus · Jan 13, 2013

corrected links from previous post:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&ln=en&p=find+a+Fitzpatrick,+A+L
http://relativity.phys.lsu.edu/ilqgs/schedulesp13.html

At noon 13 Jan, the pop string top five salesrank average was 9091. The five bestselling stringy titles were
e-elegant, grand, e-hidden, fabric, and parallel.

2013 publications link:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2013&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb

marcus · Jan 15, 2013

A mid-January pop-string sales rank reading is only an informal check because for conciseness I'm only saving March, July, November figures, but as a way of keeping track in between times here how it's going:

12 Jan 10411
13 Jan 9091
14 Jan 9034
15 Jan 9325
...
...
The stringy top five titles on 15 January were grand, fabric, e-elegant, hidden, e-grand and their average sales rank was 9325.

marcus · Jan 16, 2013

At noon Pacific 16 January the stringy top five (e-elegant, fabric, hidden, grand, e-hidden) ranked 8665, 10530, 11046, 11205, 18745, for an average salesrank of 12038.
An addition to the list of those considered for first-time faculty appointments in HEP-theory:

Ilarion Melnikov
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Melnikov,+I

marcus · Jan 17, 2013

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

It was just announced today that Inspire, the SLAC/Stanford data base that replaced Spires, has posted the annual topcite list for 2011:

http://blog.inspirehep.net/2013/01/topcites-2011-edition.html
http://inspirehep.net/info/hep/stats/topcites/2011/annual.html

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 and trends.)
The new research database INSPIRE has continued this tradition by posting a TOP FORTY list. This is not precisely comparable, because 40 rather than 50, but close enough so we can keep tracking the number of RECENT (from past 5 five years) string papers making the list.

Number of recent string papers making the top fifty* in the Spires/Inspires 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       0

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.
*In 2011 the annual Inspire "top 40" replaces the Spires list.

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)
2011 http://inspirehep.net/info/hep/stats/topcites/2011/annual.html (zero)

Since we've turned a page, I'll bring forward the corresponding record of string hires, as a fraction of total in HEP-theory.
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: http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
Source for previous years: http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08

At noon 17 January the pop-string top five (e-elegant, fabric, hidden, grand, e-grand) had an average sales rank of 12668.
(8528+10299+10574+13866+20072)/5

marcus · Jan 18, 2013

Update on research posting rates based on the same database search in each consecutive year. The 2013 figures, as of 18 January) can be annualized for comparison.

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 163 found
2013 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2013&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (6 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 (1047 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 (1214 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1093 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1108 found)
2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (844 found)
2013 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2013&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (28 found)

Quantum cosmology research since 2009:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2013&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=50&sc=0&of=hb (442 found)
The Loop papers represent about half of the quantum cosmology papers found, and a larger percentage of those most highly cited: e.g. 24 out of the top 30 papers citewise.

This next search is specialized to find research that appeared 2009 or later exploring ways of TESTING quantum cosmology (phenomenology, comparing QC models with observation.)
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
A bit slow, when last tested it worked after about a 10 second wait, and came up with 68 papers.I'm only saving March, July, November pop-string salesrank figures, but as a way of keeping track in between times here how it's going:

12 Jan 10411
13 Jan 9091
14 Jan 9034
15 Jan 9325
16 Jan 12038
17 Jan 12688
18 Jan 12319
...
The stringy top five titles on 18 January ( e-elegant, fabric, grand, e-grand, hidden) had salesranks 5620+9472+12322+14971+19107 for an average of 12319

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
November 2012       7792 
(January 2013      10701)

(10411+9091+9034+9325+12038+12688+12319)/7

marcus · Jan 24, 2013

marcus · Jan 25, 2013

More appeared on shortlists today:
Piyush Kumar
Josef Pradler
Haibo Yu
Tuhin Roy

http://inspirehep.net/search?p=author:P.Kumar.4+exactauthor:"Kumar,+Piyush"
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Pradler,+J
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=author:H.B.Yu.1+
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=author:T.Roy.1+exactauthor:"Roy,+Tuhin+S."

marcus · Jan 31, 2013

marcus · Feb 6, 2013

marcus · Feb 8, 2013

Spot check on pop-string book market. At noon 8 February the top five stringybooks (grand, fabric, elegant, e-grand, e-elegant) ranked 7538, 10121, 11923, 12856, 12975 for an average of 11083.

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
November 2012       7792 
(January 2013      10701)
(8 February spot   11083)

marcus · Feb 11, 2013

marcus · Feb 13, 2013

An addition to the HEP theory first time faculty appointment short-list:
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Batell,+B
As of noon Pacific 12 Feb the top five pop-string books (grand, e-elegant, hidden, fabric, elegant) ranked 7706, 8831, 9925, 10281, 12991, for an average of 9947.

As of noon Pacific 13 Feb the top five pop-string books (grand, fabric, e-elegant, elegant, v-elegant) ranked 6505+9184+11030+11330+12395 for an average of 10089.

marcus · Feb 15, 2013

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
November 2012       7792 
(January 2013      10701)
(February 2013       ?  )

At noon 14 Feb the top five stringy pop titles (grand, e-elegant, audio-parallel, fabric, elegant) ranked 5320, 7753, 8272, 10761, 11329, for an average of 8687.
As of noon 15 Feb top five stringy pop titles (grand, e-elegant, parallel, fabric, elegant) rank 6767, 6909, 8555, 10500, 10570, for an average of 8660.
So far the mid-February numbers are:

12 Feb 9947
13 Feb 10089
14 Feb 8687
15 Feb 8660
16 Feb ...
17 Feb ...

marcus · Feb 18, 2013

Additional link to check for Planck spacecraft results:
http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=planck

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
November 2012       7792 
(January 2013      10701)
(February 2013      8594)

12 Feb 9947
13 Feb 10089
14 Feb 8687
15 Feb 8660
16 Feb 8182
17 Feb 6000

marcus · Feb 19, 2013

marcus · Feb 20, 2013

marcus · Feb 28, 2013

Very little change in the above list.
One addition, over the past 8 days.
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Faulkner,+T

Eleven of the invited speakers at Loops 2013 (to be held in July) have been announced:

Ivan Agullo, DAMPT Cambridge (formerly at Pennsylvania State University)

Aurelien Barrau, Universite Joseph Fourier

Eugenio Bianchi, Perimeter Institute

Steve Carlip, University of California, Davis

Fay Dowker, Imperial College, London

Razvan Gurau, Université Paris-Sud

Kirill Krasnov, University of Nottingham

Etera Livine, Ens de Lyon

Alejandro Perez, Centre de Physique Theorique

David Skinner, DAMPT Cambridge, IAS

Silke Weinfurtner, DAMPT Cambridge, IAS

marcus · Mar 15, 2013

Since we've turned a page, I'll bring forward the record of string hires, as a fraction of total in HEP-theory.
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

Source: http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php http://inspirehep.net/info/hep/stats/topcites/2011/annual.html

The former Stanford/SLAC research database Spires let one see which were the 50 HEP papers that had been most highy cited during the past year. The new research database INSPIRE has continued this tradition by posting a TOP FORTY list. This is not precisely comparable, because 40 rather than 50, but close enough so we can keep tracking the number of RECENT (from past 5 five years) string papers making the list.

Number of recent string papers making the top fifty/forty in the Spires/Inspires 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       0

marcus · Mar 18, 2013

mid-March noon Amazon salesrank averages, for the top five pop-string books:
12 Mar 8816
13 Mar 6405
14 Mar 7569
15 Mar 7644
16 Mar 6496
17 Mar 7011
18 Mar 7833

The average is 7396.

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
November 2012       7792 
March 2013          7396

marcus · Mar 25, 2013

The organizers of Strings 2013 (Seoul, Korea) just today posted their list of Speakers.
The conference will take place in late June.

Introduction :
J. Schwarz (Caltech)

Overview talks:
N. Arkani-Hamed (Harvard University)
S. Hartnoll (Stanford University)
S. Minwalla (Tata Institute, Mumbai)
R. Myers (Perimeter, Waterloo)
P. Yi (KIAS, Seoul)

Confirmed Plenary Speakers:
D. Berman (Queen Mary of London)
M. Cvetic (Univ. of Pennsylvania)
M. Douglas (SCGP, Stony Brook)
M. Gaberdiel (ETH Zurich)
D. Gaiotto (Perimeter, Waterloo)
S. Gukov (Caltech)
D. Harlow (Princeton University)
G. Horowitz (UC Santa Barbara)
R. Janik (Jagiellonian University)
S. Kachru (Stanford University)
Seok Kim (Seoul N. University)
I. Klebanov (Princeton Univeristy)
Z. Komargodski (Weizmann Institute)
G. Landsberg (Brown Univeristy)
Sungjay Lee (Chicago University)
A. Linde (Stanford University)
J. Maldacena (IAS, Princeton)
G. Moore (Rutgers University)
D. Morrison (UC, Santa-*Barbara)
H. Ooguri (Caltech/KIPMU, Tokyo)
S. Pasquetti (University of Surrey)
J. Polchinski (KITP, Santa Barbara)
S. Rychkov (CERN/University of PMC)
N. Seiberg (IAS, Princeton)
A. Sen (Harish-Chandra R. Institute)
E. Silverstein (Stanford University)
D. Skinner (Cambridge University/IAS)
A. Strominger (Harvard University)
T. Takayanagi (YITP/KIPMU, Japan)
C. Vafa (Harvard University)
P. Vieira (Perimeter,Waterloo)
E. Witten (IAS, Princeton)
X. Yin (Harvard University)

Conference summary:
J. Harvey (Chicago University)

Outlook/Vision:
D. Gross (KITP, Santa Barbara)

marcus · Mar 27, 2013

Speakers and some of the titles, for the series of lectures at the Zakopane summer school:
http://th-www.if.uj.edu.pl/school/2013/speakers.html

Jan AMBJORN (NBI Copenhagen)
Abhay ASHTEKAR (Penn State) Quantum Gravity and Cosmology
Eugenio BIANCHI (Perimeter Inst.)
Damir BUSKULIC (LAPP Annecy)
Renate LOLL (Utrecht Univ.) Simplicial Gravity
Ilya MANDEL (Univ.of Birmingham) LIGO Experiment
Viatcheslav MUKHANOV (LMU Muenchen)
Roger PENROSE (Univ. of Oxford)
Hans RINGSTROM (KTH Stockholm) Cauchy Problem in General Relativity
Ulrich SPERHAKE (Caltech)
Thomas THIEMANN (FAU Erlangen)
David TONG (Univ. of Cambridge) AdS/CMT
Robert M. WALD (Univ. of Chicago) Thermodynamics and Stability of Black Holes
Toby WISEMAN (Imperial College) AdS/CMT
see also the earlier list:
http://th-www.if.uj.edu.pl/school/2013/speakers&titles.html

marcus · Mar 30, 2013

Sociology of Physics: comment and indices

Discussion Overview

Discussion Character

Main Points Raised

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Contextual Notes

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