Sociology of Physics: comment and indices

[marcus]

Fra, there is so far no English translation on the market!
I saw a notice that the US publisher Alfred Knopf has purchased rights to sell the translation.

But I didn't yet see any news about them getting a translation made, or about going to market with it.

My rough guess is that an English version of Bojowald's book is about 2 years away. One year to make the translation (if they are already working on it) and then one year for editing/revision and production.

Apologies. I didn't mean to give the impression that there was an English version. My only handle on the book is the amazon.com page.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/3100039106/?tag=pfamazon01-20
On this page, incidentally, there is a link to a sample from the introductory chapter. The link is in the "Product information" section about halfway down the page:
"...
Produktinformation
Leseprobe: Jetzt reinlesen [106kb PDF]
..."
The sample, as I recall, is a half-dozen pages more or less.

=======
EDIT
Just so I don't forget, on 29 November 6PM central Europe time, Bojowald book's ratio was 0.78 against the top three stringies.
(Stoff, Verborgene, Elegant ranked 3089, 8101, 9506 for average of 6898.7, Züruck ranked 8836)

 

[Fra]

Ah thanks Marcus for the clarification. I must have misunderstood you, I thought you had read the english book but not the german one.

Apologies. I didn't mean to give the impression that there was an English version. My only handle on the book is the amazon.com page.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/3100039106/?tag=pfamazon01-20
On this page, incidentally, there is a link to a sample from the introductory chapter. The link is in the "Product information" section about halfway down the page:
"...
Produktinformation
Leseprobe: Jetzt reinlesen [106kb PDF]
..."
The sample, as I recall, is a half-dozen pages more or less.

Thanks to my dictionary skills beeing better than man language skills, I could skim that sample :) However I wouldn't be able to read an entire book in german without large efforts. Also a lot of the subtle messages easily gets lost in translations.

I haven't read more than some random paper of Martin Bojowald but my impression is that he has a the constrained focus of quantum cosmology, whith cosmology referring to "convential cosmology", as opposed to a more abstract "cosmology" which one can imagine where an inside observers is crusiing a hypothesis space that is perhaps expanding and changing shape.

This form of quantum cosmology (wether LQC or something else) is not the area where I feel I have the best grip on things, so I can't even judge what a good conceptualization or popularisation of that would be like. Since my choice of conceptualization does start from this more abstract information theoretic angle.

My impression is that this "conventional quantum cosmology" somehow starts with some IMHO highly questionable assumptions of hilbert spaces and wave functions of the universe.

So my take on quantum cosmology would not be to try to actually do a regular quantum theory of some version of classical GR, my preferences would be to analyse the foundations of QM, and then argue that if you take the inside view seriously (which current theory do not), then an evolving perspective is the natural solution. And this indirectly leads also to a "kind of" cosmological models since it suggest that there is a large scale evolution (where "large" is referenced from an inside observer). ie. the conventional cosmology, and GR in particular, would be a result in this program - not an input. The form of GR, is very suggestive and it's too suggestive for me to not make me think it's a special case of a yet deeper formalism.

This is why, as far as I understand it, Bojowald is taking on a task of elaboration one possibility, and it seems from that exctrated paper that he is honest and raises a warning that most areas of this research is speculative, and that there are deeper aspects of this that are still very open. So in that sense it seems to be honest.

But the very fact that as I suspect, except these sound precautions, the bulk of the book would probably elaborate the implications of one idea. This might from start reject those readers that question his initial foundations. I fully accept the LQC possibility, but I find it so objectionable that the amount of elaborative energy I'm willing to put into that, in competition to other ideas is limited.

In this sense, I think Smolin for comparasion has managed to write a book with wider applicability - too wide maybe, but this is why I am look forward to this next book.

/Fredrik

 

[marcus]

I also look forward to seeing Smolin's next book. I think a preferred time for popular physics books to come out is early September. That way you get the college and university students, because they will be buying their textbooks for the Fall semester---and also then the reviews come out in September-November and prepare for the Christmas season buying. My guess is that if we see the Smolin Unger at all within the next 12 months, it will not be until September 2010.

Thanks for taking the trouble to sample the German edition of Züruck vor den Urknall! Eventually I hope to get an idea of the quality of style. Would a translation work in the US market? This is not a question you would want to (or be able to) help me answer.

I have a stereotype of the German market that they are willing to buy and read books that are more serious and academic sounding than what would sell in the US market. So it is possible that this book will do quite well in the German market, but not so well in the US.
This is my stereotype whether right or wrong---I think in the US market a popular science book needs to be in large part entertainment. It has to exploit the devices of personality and anecdote. And it needs to dovetail with the talk-show television format (a device that essentially sells the author's personality as a conversationalist).

=====================

EDIT
Again just so I don't forget at 18 hours Berlin time Bojowald's book was doing 0.67 as good as the stringy benchmark. It ranked 9080 and the top three stringies (Stoff, Verborgene, Elegante) ranked 4526, 5859, 7800 for an average of 6061.7 making the ratio 0.67.

 

[Fra]

Hmm... it would be quite interesting to see a distribution profile of what kind of reasons people have for reading these kinds of books.

There is similarly probably a variety of reason for why the authors writes these kinds of "non-text books" if such an expression makes sense (pop-sci, philosophy of science, biographies of important scientists etc).

Your entertainment idea never struck me before, but maybe that's a significant account of buyers? As far as entertainment goes I figure the line between sci-fi and pop-sci is fuzzy, since what's fact and what's fiction is quite irrelevant from the perspecive of entertainment value.

The other domain which I'm more interested in is the philosophy of science, partly history of science, and the logic of reasoning and how a specific choice of reasoning naturally leads to certain frameworks. It is in fact quite interesting that the logic of reasoning is sometimes more exposed when someone tries to convey something in non-mathematical terms, since the final mathematical construct often disguises it's origin. This is the kind of things that makes me read these books.

In text-books the aim is usually not in general to explain and motivate the theory in a context of reasoing. The aim is the as right to the point as possible, describe or teach the reader about what the theory is, says and howto apply it. Sometimes textbooks contains motivational introdoctory chapters, but it's author dependent and sometimes the real reasons aren't exposed.

Often a textbook is like a manual or technica description. A manual tells what the device does and howto operate it, it does not tell you how it's built, or why it was built this or that way - this strips some information out of it, that may be important when building onto it.

This is why I like Smolin's books. He presents questions that forces the reader to re-analyzer previous positions in a healthy way.

/Fredrik

 

[marcus]

I'll update the indices we watch, in the case of book sales averaging around the first of each month to eliminate some of the random fluctuation.
Our Loop publication index uses the Spires base with DESY keywords "spin, foam", "field theory, group", "quantum gravity, loop space", and "quantum cosmology, loop space".

2005 40
2006 82
2007 121
2008 129
2009 125 (as of 30 November)

Here is the link for 2009 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2009&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

==========

Salesrank performance of Zurück vor den Urknall ("Before the Big Bang")
at 6PM Berlin time, compared with the average rank of the 3 currently most popular string books

29 November 0.78
30 November 0.67
1 December 0.74
2 December ?
3 December ?To illustrate how the index works, at 6PM central European time on 30 November, Zurück ranked 9080, and the three most popular stringies (which happened to be Stoff, Verborgene, and Elegante) ranked 4526, 5859, 7800 for an average 6061.7 and a ratio of 0.67. In other words Bojowald's book was doing about two thirds as well as the stringy benchmark.
=============

Trouble with Physcs, Amazon salesrank performance compared with five most popular string titles.

1 January 0.6 (2009)
1 February 0.7
1 March 0.5
1 April 0.6
1 May 0.6
1 June 0.7
1 July 1.9
1 August 0.6
1 September 0.6
1 October 0.4
1 November 0.5
...
30 November 0.56
1 December 0.54
2 December ?

To illustrate, at noon California time on 30 November, Trouble ranked 13570 and the five most popular stringies (hyperspace, elegant, fabric, parallel, black hole) ranked 4054, 4759, 4914, 5811, 18300, for an average of 7567.6 and a ratio of 0.56.

String publication rate for the first 10 months, measured using the Harvard abstracts database with keywords superstring, M-theory, brane, AdS/CFT, heterotic, compactification. As of 30 November the 10-month figures (successive years, through the end of October) for 2007, 2008, 2009 were 4143, 4071, 4038.

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

 

[marcus]

Some indices we watch:
Our Loop publication index uses the Spires base with DESY keywords "spin, foam", "field theory, group", "quantum gravity, loop space", and "quantum cosmology, loop space".

2005 40
2006 82
2007 121
2008 129
2009 126 (as of 2 December)

Here is the link for 2009 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2009&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

==========

Salesrank performance of Zurück vor den Urknall ("Before the Big Bang")
at 6PM Berlin time, compared with the average rank of the 3 currently most popular string books

29 November 0.78
30 November 0.67
1 December 0.74
2 December 0.51
3 December 1.85

The average of these comes out to 0.91

At 6PM central European time on 2 December, Zurück ranked 14811, and the three most popular stringies (which were Elegante, Stoff, Verborgene) ranked 3174, 7511, 11900 for an average 7528.3 and a ratio of 0.51. Bojowald's book was doing about half as well as the benchmark stringy average.
At 6PM central European time on 3 December, Zurück ranked 4379, and the three most popular stringies (which happened to be Elegante, Stoff, Verborgene) ranked 4033, 7557, 12792 for an average 8120.7 and a ratio of 1.85. In other words Bojowald's book was doing nearly twice as well as the stringy benchmark.

I'll keep the average of these readings around the first as a concise record and start a new chart:

Zurück vor den Urknall, Amazon.de salesrank relative to stringy benchmark.

1 December 0.9
​

The book came on the market in April 2009, we'll see how it goes over the next few months.

=============

Trouble with Physcs, Amazon salesrank performance compared with five most popular string titles.

1 January 0.6 (2009)
1 February 0.7
1 March 0.5
1 April 0.6
1 May 0.6
1 June 0.7
1 July 1.9
1 August 0.6
1 September 0.6
1 October 0.4
1 November 0.5
...
30 November 0.56
1 December 0.54
2 December 0.55
...
(averaged and rounded value 1 December 0.5)

To illustrate, at noon California time on 2 December, Trouble ranked 11209 and the five most popular stringies ( parallel, fabric, elegant, hyperspace, paperback elegant) ranked 3193, 4467, 4822, 5204, 12959, for an average of 6129.0 and a ratio of 0.55.
The smoothed and rounded value for the first of the month is therefore 0.5.

String publication rate for the first 10 months, measured using the Harvard abstracts database with keywords superstring, M-theory, brane, AdS/CFT, heterotic, compactification. As of 30 November the 10-month figures (successive years, through the end of October) for 2007, 2008, 2009 were 4143, 4071, 4038.

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

 

[marcus]

Loop publication index uses the Spires base with DESY keywords "spin, foam", "field theory, group", "quantum gravity, loop space", and "quantum cosmology, loop space".

2005 40
2006 82
2007 121
2008 129
2009 128 (as of 6 December)

Link for 2009 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2009&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

==========

Zurück vor den Urknall Amazon.de salesrank relative to stringy benchmark at 6PM Berlin time.

1 December 0.9
...
6 December 0.8
7 December 0.5
...

To illustrate how the index is calculated, at 6PM central European time on 3 December, Zurück ranked 4379, and the three most popular stringies (which happened to be Elegante, Stoff, Verborgene) ranked 4033, 7557, 12792 for an average 8120.7 and a ratio of 1.85. In other words Bojowald's book was doing nearly twice as well as the stringy benchmark.

Züruck vor den Urknall ("Before the Big Bang") is the first popular book concentrating primarily on the Loop approach to modeling the universe.

=============

Trouble with Physcs, Amazon.com salesrank compared with five most popular string titles.

1 January 0.6 (2009)
1 February 0.7
1 March 0.5
1 April 0.6
1 May 0.6
1 June 0.7
1 July 1.9
1 August 0.6
1 September 0.6
1 October 0.4
1 November 0.5
1 December 0.5
...
6 December 0.7
7 December 0.6
...To illustrate, at noon California time on 2 December, Trouble ranked 11209 and the five most popular stringies ( parallel, fabric, elegant, hyperspace, paperback elegant) ranked 3193, 4467, 4822, 5204, 12959, for an average of 6129.0 and a ratio of 0.55.
========

String publication rate for the first 10 months of each year, measured using the Harvard abstracts database with keywords superstring, M-theory, brane, AdS/CFT, heterotic, compactification. As of 6 December the 10-month figures (successive years, through the end of October) for 2007, 2008, 2009 were 4143, 4071, 4038.

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

 

[marcus]

To update a couple of our indices, in the popular book department we have:Zurück vor den Urknall Amazon.de salesrank relative to stringy benchmark at 6PM Berlin time.

1 December 0.9
...
6 December 0.8
7 December 0.5
...
9 December 0.9
10 December 0.8

To illustrate how the index is calculated, at 6PM central European time on 9 December, Zurück ranked 5383, and the three most popular stringies (which happened to be Stoff, Verborgene, Elegante) ranked 3496, 5656, 6126 for an average 5092.7 and a ratio of 0.95. In other words Bojowald's book was doing a bit over 90% as well as the stringy benchmark.

Züruck vor den Urknall ("Before the Big Bang") is the first popular book concentrating primarily on the Loop approach to modeling the universe.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/3100039106/?tag=pfamazon01-20
It's doing remarkably well, I think. Came out in April 2009, so what we are now seeing is apt to be evidence of sustained interest, not the initial kick-off emphasis resulting from reviews and publisher promotion.
===============
Turning to the academic side---peer-reviewed scientific papers---we have:

Loop publication index uses the Spires base with DESY keywords "spin, foam", "field theory, group", "quantum gravity, loop space", and "quantum cosmology, loop space".

2005 40
2006 82
2007 122
2008 134
2009 130 (as of 9 December)

Link for 2009 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2009&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

==========

 

[marcus]

Here are another couple of indices that we keep an eye on and occasionally update.It's time we set up links to check the string publication rate for the first 11 months.

This is measured using the Harvard abstracts database with keywords superstring, M-theory, brane, AdS/CFT, heterotic, compactification. Successive years through the end of November. Figures aren't final.

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

Trouble with Physics, Amazon.com salesrank compared with five most popular string titles.

1 January 0.6 (2009)
1 February 0.7
1 March 0.5
1 April 0.6
1 May 0.6
1 June 0.7
1 July 1.9
1 August 0.6
1 September 0.6
1 October 0.4
1 November 0.5
1 December 0.5
...
6 December 0.7
7 December 0.6
...
11 December 0.6To illustrate, at noon Pacific on 11 December, Trouble ranked 8875 and the five most popular stringies ( parallel, elegant, fabric, hyperspace, black hole) ranked 2142, 2816, 4215, 4449, 14472 for an average of 5618.8 and a ratio of 0.63.
========

 

[marcus]

Zurück vor den Urknall Amazon.de salesrank relative to stringy benchmark at 6PM Berlin time.

1 December 0.9
...
6 December 0.8
7 December 0.5
...
9 December 0.9
10 December 0.8
...
14 December 0.9
15 December 1.0

To illustrate how the index is calculated, at 6PM central European time on 15 December, Zurück ranked 6664, and the three most popular stringies (which happened to be Elegante, Stoff, Verborgene) ranked 2624, 8484, 8750 for an average 6619.3 and a ratio of 0.99. In other words Bojowald's book was performing on par with the stringy top three.
I'm interested in how Züruck vor den Urknall ("Before the Big Bang") does, because it is the world's first popular book concentrating primarily on the Loop approach to modeling the universe. Nothing comparable has so far appeared in the US market.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/3100039106/?tag=pfamazon01-20

===============

Loop publication index uses the Spires base with DESY keywords "spin, foam", "field theory, group", "quantum gravity, loop space", and "quantum cosmology, loop space".

2005 40
2006 82
2007 122
2008 134
2009 132 (as of 15 December)

Link for 2009 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2009&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

 

[marcus]

Martin B's book is doing remarkably well! It came out in April 2009, so what we are seeing now is not merely the first rush of sales driven by publicity and reviews in the media when a book first appears. We are already 8 months on in the book's trajectory.

Zurück vor den Urknall Amazon.de salesrank relative to stringy benchmark at 6PM Berlin time.

1 December 0.9
...
6 December 0.8
7 December 0.5
...
9 December 0.9
10 December 0.8
...
14 December 0.9
15 December 1.0
16 December 1.2
17 December 1.1
18 December 0.7To illustrate how the index is calculated, at 6PM central European time on 17 December, Zurück ranked 6522, and the three most popular stringies (which happened to be Elegante, Stoff, Verborgene) ranked 3215, 7681, 11254 for an average 7383.3 and a ratio of 1.13.
Züruck vor den Urknall ("Before the Big Bang") is the first popular book concentrating primarily on the Loop approach to quantum gravity and the early universe. Since it has shown some potential in the German market, the question arises as to how it might do in English translation (either in the Europe-wide market or in North America.)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/3100039106/?tag=pfamazon01-20

===============

Loop publication index uses the Spires base with DESY keywords "spin, foam", "field theory, group", "quantum gravity, loop space", and "quantum cosmology, loop space".

2005 40
2006 82
2007 122
2008 137
2009 135 (as of 18 December)

Link for 2008 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2008&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

Link for 2009 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2009&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

The DESY librarians have recently found a half-dozen more 2008 artices to include in the Loop-related category. So both the 2008 and 2009 numbers have been creeping up. Neither can be considered as final.

 

[marcus]

A few indices we keep an eye on and occasionally update.String publication for the first 11 months of three successive years.
This is measured using the Harvard abstracts database with keywords superstring, M-theory, brane, AdS/CFT, heterotic, compactification. Figures aren't final.

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

As of 24 December the figures for the three consecutive years were 4588, 4458, 4394.

============

Zurück vor den Urknall Amazon.de salesrank relative to stringy benchmark at 6PM Berlin time.

1 December 0.9
...
6 December 0.8
7 December 0.5
...
9 December 0.9
10 December 0.8
...
14 December 0.9
15 December 1.0
16 December 1.2
17 December 1.1
18 December 0.7
...
24 December 0.4

Züruck vor den Urknall ("Before the Big Bang") is the first ever book for general audience that focuses on the Loop approach to quantum gravity and the early universe. The benchmark used for comparison is the average of the three currently most popular string titles.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/3100039106/?tag=pfamazon01-20

===============

Loop publication index uses the Spires base with DESY keywords "spin, foam", "field theory, group", "quantum gravity, loop space", and "quantum cosmology, loop space".

2005 40
2006 82
2007 122
2008 137
2009 139 (as of 24 December)

Link for 2008 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2008&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

Link for 2009 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2009&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

Both the 2008 and 2009 numbers have been creeping up. Neither can be considered final.

 

[marcus]

We can set up to check the full year figures now, although the one for this year has not stabilized yet.
String publication for the full 12 months of three successive years, measured using the Harvard abstracts database with keywords superstring, M-theory, brane, AdS/CFT, heterotic, compactification. Figures aren't final.

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

As of 29 December the figures for the first 11 months of three consecutive years were 4588, 4458, 4394.
Full year figures (still preliminary) were 5100, 4928, 4571. That last one, for 2009, looks like it can be expected to increase quite a bit, eventually, as the librarians catch up with their yearend work load.

============

Zurück vor den Urknall Amazon.de salesrank relative to stringy benchmark at 6PM Berlin time.

1 December 0.9
...
6 December 0.8
7 December 0.5
...
9 December 0.9
10 December 0.8
...
14 December 0.9
15 December 1.0
16 December 1.2
17 December 1.1
18 December 0.7
...
24 December 0.4
...
28 December 1.3
29 December 0.64

The benchmark used for comparison is the average of the three currently most popular string titles.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/3100039106/?tag=pfamazon01-20

===============

Loop publication index uses the Spires base with DESY keywords "spin, foam", "field theory, group", "quantum gravity, loop space", and "quantum cosmology, loop space". Figures aren't final.

2005 40
2006 82
2007 122
2008 137
2009 141 (as of 29 December)

Link for 2008 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2008&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

Link for 2009 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2009&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

 

[marcus]

Averaging around the first of the month to smooth out some of the random fluctuation

Züruck vor den Urknall

30 December 0.77
31 December 0.92
1 January 0.44
2 January 0.17
3 January ...

The Trouble with Physics

31 December 0.29
1 January 0.49 (as of noon Pacific, as usual)
2 January ...

As of noon Pacific on 1 January 2010 Trouble ranked 16916 and the top five stringies (parallel, fabric, elegant, hyperspace, warped) ranked 2940, 3694, 5044, 8655, 21312, for an average of 8329.0 and a ratio of 0.49.
Salesrankwise Trouble was doing about half as well as the average topfive stringy.

 

[marcus]

Trouble with Physics, Amazon.com salesrank compared with five most popular string titles.

1 January 0.6 (2009)
1 February 0.7
1 March 0.5
1 April 0.6
1 May 0.6
1 June 0.7
1 July 1.9
1 August 0.6
1 September 0.6
1 October 0.4
1 November 0.5
1 December 0.5
1 January 0.3 (2010)

Readings taken at noon Pacific, averaged around the first of the month to reduce random fluctuation.

======================
String publication for three successive years, measured using the Harvard abstracts database with keywords superstring, M-theory, brane, AdS/CFT, heterotic, compactification.

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

As of 3 January 2010, the full year figures (still preliminary) were 5100, 4928, 4579. The last number, for 2009, looks like it can be expected to increase quite a bit as the librarians catch up with their yearend work load.

============

Zurück vor den Urknall Amazon.de salesrank relative to stringy benchmark at 6PM Berlin time.

1 December 0.9
...
30 December 0.77
31 December 0.92
1 January 0.44
2 January 0.17
3 January 0.32

The benchmark used for comparison is the average of the three currently most popular string titles. Readings averaged around the first of the month to smooth out random fluctuation. In this case the average is 0.524, which rounds off to 0.5. So, just recording the smoothed first-of-month values we get:

1 December 0.9
1 January 0.5

http://www.amazon.com/dp/3100039106/?tag=pfamazon01-20

===============

Loop publication index uses the Spires base with DESY keywords "spin, foam", "field theory, group", "quantum gravity, loop space", and "quantum cosmology, loop space". Figures aren't final.

2005 40
2006 82
2007 122
2008 137
2009 141 (as of 2 January)

Link for 2008 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2008&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

Link for 2009 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2009&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

 

[marcus]

Ordinarily at least once a year we check string citations, to detect any trend. For any given year, I focus on recent publications---appearing in the last 5 years---and look at citations occurring in that year. The Spires listing for 2009 could appear any time now, but we don't have it yet. Here for comparison is the listing for 2008, which appeared in January 2009.

I have removed non-string papers and papers which appeared before 2004. We are looking at a five-year window 2004-2008. The original Spires list contained 50 papers, many were string from the 1990s and many of the more recent papers were in non-string areas such as astrophysics. After eliminating non-recent and non-string, four papers remained.

The first number given is the number of citations the article received during 2008.
When the list for 2009 appears we will be able to compare.

193
Gauge symmetry and supersymmetry of multiple M2-branes
By Jonathan Bagger (Johns Hopkins U.), Neil Lambert (King’s Coll. London, Dept. Math).
Published in:Phys.Rev.D77:065008,2008
(arXiv:0711.0955)
[195 Total citations in HEP]

178
Algebraic structures on parallel M2-branes
By Andreas Gustavsson (Goteborg, ITP).
HEP Record
(arXiv:0709.1260)
[181 Total citations in HEP]

174
N=6 superconformal Chern-Simons-matter theories, M2-branes and their gravity duals
By Ofer Aharony (Weizmann Inst.), Oren Bergman (Princeton, Inst. Advanced Study & Technion), Daniel Louis Jafferis (Rutgers U., Piscataway), Juan Maldacena (Pri
nceton, Inst. Advanced Study).
Published in:JHEP 0810:091,2008
(arXiv:0806.1218)
[176 Total citations in HEP]

173
Modeling Multiple M2’s
By Jonathan Bagger (Johns Hopkins U.), Neil Lambert (King’s Coll. London, Dept. Math).
Published in:Phys.Rev.D75:045020,2007
(arXiv:hep-th/0611108)
[184 Total citations in HEP]

This is from the SLAC-Stanford "Symmetry-Breaking" article called
"Top-cited high-energy physics articles during 2008", dated January 14, 2009.
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/bre...ited-high-energy-physics-articles-during-2008

 

[marcus]

Updates as of 11 Jan.

Trouble with Physics, Amazon.com salesrank compared with five most popular string titles.

1 January 0.6 (2009)
1 February 0.7
1 March 0.5
1 April 0.6
1 May 0.6
1 June 0.7
1 July 1.9
1 August 0.6
1 September 0.6
1 October 0.4
1 November 0.5
1 December 0.5
1 January 0.3 (2010)
...
11 January 0.6

Readings taken at noon Pacific, averaged around the first of the month to reduce random fluctuation.

To illustrate at noon 11 January Smolin ranked 20623 and string top five (elegant, parallel, fabric, hyperspace, idiot guide) ranked 3535, 4564, 5541, 21007, 23241, for an average of 11577.6 and a ratio of 0.56. Trouble with Physics was doing a bit over half as well as the five most popular string books.

===========

String publication for three successive years, measured using the Harvard abstracts database with keywords superstring, M-theory, brane, AdS/CFT, heterotic, compactification.

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

As of 11 January 2010, the full year figures (still preliminary) were 5100, 4929, 4584. I would expect the last number, for 2009, to increase as the librarians catch up with their yearend work load---maybe to near 4800. Not sure about this, just that it looks surprisingly low.

============

Zurück vor den Urknall Amazon.de salesrank relative to stringy benchmark at 6PM Berlin time.

1 December 0.9
1 January 0.5
...
11 January 1.3

http://www.amazon.com/dp/3100039106/?tag=pfamazon01-20

To illustrate, on 11 January at 6 PM Central Europe time, Bojo's book ranked 10805 and the top three stringies in the German market (stoff, elegante, and hardbound elegante) ranked 6718, 6830, 29898, for an average of 14482 and a ratio of 1.34.
So Züruck vor den Urknall was doing somewhat better than the top three stringy average that we're using for a benchmark. It fluctuates around a lot. Came out in April 2009.

===============

Loop publication index uses the Spires base with DESY keywords "spin, foam", "field theory, group", "quantum gravity, loop space", and "quantum cosmology, loop space". Figures seem to have stabilized.

2005 40
2006 82
2007 122
2008 137
2009 141 (as of 11 January)

Link for 2008 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2008&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

Link for 2009 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2009&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

=====

"Top-cited high-energy physics articles during 2008", dated January 14, 2009,
from SLAC-Stanford's Symmetry-Breaking
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/bre...ited-high-energy-physics-articles-during-2008

Restricting to recent (past five years: 2004-2008) string papers we see that 4 recent string papers made the topcite 50 list. String citation standing has dropped. In the early 2000s it used to be that more like 12/50 of the top fifty were recent string. And the rankings were often near the top of the 50 list.
This year the four recent string papers that made the top 50 list had average citecount of just under 180, which put them down near the bottom of the list. Their ranks were 37, 44, 48, 49.

That was the 2008 list that came out in January of 2009. Now it is one year later. I suppose we may expect a similar list. Top 50 HEP papers for 2009. Hopefully it will come out soon so we can compare and inspect for change.

 

[marcus]

String publication for three successive years, measured using the Harvard abstracts database with keywords superstring, M-theory, brane, AdS/CFT, heterotic, compactification.

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

On 18 January 2010, the full year figures (still preliminary) were 5100, 4929, 4854. As the librarians catch up with their yearend work load the figure for 2009 has moved up into the expected range, close to what we saw for the previous two years.

============

Zurück vor den Urknall Amazon.de salesrank relative to stringy benchmark at 6PM Berlin time.

1 December 0.9
1 January 0.5
...
11 January 1.3
...
18 January 2.8

http://www.amazon.com/dp/3100039106/?tag=pfamazon01-20

To illustrate, on 18 January at 6 PM Central Europe time, Bojowald's book ranked 7367 and the top three stringies in the German market (elegante, stoff, and verborgene) ranked 3601, 6389, and 52337, for an average of 20775.7 and a ratio of 2.82.
So Züruck vor den Urknall was doing somewhat better than twice as well as the top three stringy average that we're using for a benchmark.

===============

Loop publication index uses the Spires base with DESY keywords "spin, foam", "field theory, group", "quantum gravity, loop space", and "quantum cosmology, loop space". Figures seem nearly stable.

2005 40
2006 82
2007 122
2008 137
2009 142 (as of 18 January)

Link for 2008 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2008&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

Link for 2009 papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2009&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

=====

"Top-cited high-energy physics articles during 2008", dated January 14, 2009,
from SLAC-Stanford's Symmetry-Breaking
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/bre...ited-high-energy-physics-articles-during-2008

String citation standing in the Spires top 50 HEP has dropped. In the early 2000s it used to be that more like 12/50: around twelve out of the top fifty would be recent string. And the rankings of those twelve were often near the top of the 50 list. By recent, I mean papers that appeared in the past five years, counting back from the year in question. For the year 2008, it would be 2004-2008.

In 2008 four of the top-cited HEP papers were recent string. And the four recent string papers that made the top 50 list had average citecount of just under 180, which put them down near the bottom of the list. Their ranks were 37, 44, 48, 49.

That was the 2008 list that came out in January of 2009. Now it is one year later and I suppose we may expect a similar list to appear: the Top 50 HEP papers for 2009. However as of now SLAC-Stanford has not yet published the list of
"Top-cited high-energy physics articles during 2009".

 

[marcus]

String publication for three successive years, measured using the Harvard abstracts database with keywords superstring, M-theory, brane, AdS/CFT, heterotic, compactification.

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

On 31 January 2010, the full year figures were 5310, 5181, 5041.

============

Zurück vor den Urknall Amazon.de salesrank relative to stringy benchmark at 6PM Berlin time.

1 December 0.9
1 January 0.5
...
11 January 1.3
...
18 January 2.8
...
30 January 1.66
31 January 1.57

http://www.amazon.com/dp/3100039106/?tag=pfamazon01-20

To illustrate, on 18 January at 6 PM Central Europe time, Bojowald's book ranked 7367 and the top three stringies in the German market (elegante, stoff, and verborgene) ranked 3601, 6389, and 52337, for an average of 20775.7 and a ratio of 2.82.
At 6PM Berlin time on 31 January, Züruck vor den Urknall ranked 9726 and the top three stringy average was 15288.0, making the ratio 1.57. The top three stringies (Stoff, Verborgene, Elegante) ranked 5805, 19071, 20988. I will be making a 5 day average around 1 February to smooth out some of the random fluctuation.

Lee Smolin's book, The Trouble with Physics, compared with string benchmark:
30 January 0.31

 

[marcus]

Zurück

1 December 0.9
1 January 0.5
...
...
30 January 1.66
31 January 1.57
1 February 1.06

Trouble

1 December 0.5
1 January 0.3
...
...
30 January 0.31
31 January 0.32
1 February 0.24To illustrate, at 6PM Berlin time on 1 February Züruck ranked 8875 and the top three stringies (Elegante, Stoff, Verborgene) ranked 7185, 7393, 13609 for an average of 9395.7 and a ratio of 1.06. The first two stringies are Brian Greene books in translation and Verborgene is Lisa Randall's book. All three have sustained popularity in the German market.
At noon pacific 1 February Trouble ranked 37677 and the top five stringies (parallel, fabric, elegant, hyperspace, elegant paperback) ranked 4127, 5415, 5983, 10443, 18759, for an average of 8945.4 and a ratio of 0.24.

==update on string citation standings==

String citation standing in the Spires top 50 HEP has dropped. In the early 2000s it used to be that more like 12/50: around twelve out of the top fifty would be recent string. And the rankings of those twelve were often near the top of the 50 list. By recent, I mean papers that appeared in the past five years, counting back from the year in question. For the year 2008, it would be 2004-2008.

In 2008 four of the top-cited HEP papers were recent string. And the four recent string papers that made the top 50 list had average citecount of just under 180, which put them down near the bottom of the list. Their ranks were 37, 44, 48, 49.

In 2009 only one of the top-cited HEP papers was a recent string one. And it was number 33, rather far down towards the bottom of the top-50 list. The paper in question was cited 222 times.

Details were given in this post:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=372499
Here's the link to Spires topcites listings:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2009/annual.shtml

 

[marcus]

To get the usual averages around the first of the month, for a long term record:

Zurück

1 December 0.9
1 January 0.5
(1 February 1.1)
...
...
30 January 1.66
31 January 1.57
1 February 1.06
2 February 0.72
3 February 0.32

5-day average around 1 February equals 1.1

Trouble

1 December 0.5
1 January 0.3
1 February 0.3
...
...
30 January 0.31
31 January 0.32
1 February 0.24
2 February 0.32
3 February 0.36

5-day average around 1 February for Smolin's book came to 0.31. It is the smoothed or average figure that I record for the first of the month.To illustrate, at 6PM Berlin time on 1 February Züruck ranked 8875 and the top three stringies (Elegante, Stoff, Verborgene) ranked 7185, 7393, 13609 for an average of 9395.7 and a ratio of 1.06. The first two stringies are Brian Greene books in translation and Verborgene is Lisa Randall's book. All three have sustained popularity in the German market.
At noon pacific on 2 February Trouble ranked 30575 and the top five stringies (elegant, fabric, parallel, hyperspace, elegant paperback) ranked 5446, 6634, 7262, 14438, 15760, for an average of 9908.0 and a ratio of 0.32.
At noon pacific on 3 February Trouble ranked 21116 and the top five stringies (parallel, elegant, fabric, hyperspace, elegant paperback) ranked 4475, 5235, 7569, 9953, 11243, for an average of 7695.0 and a ratio of 0.36.

 

[marcus]

Updates as of 6 February:
String publication for three successive years, measured using the Harvard abstracts database with keywords superstring, M-theory, brane, AdS/CFT, heterotic, compactification.

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

On 4 February 2010, the successive year figures were 5311, 5181, 5046. Seems to be a slight downward trend.

============

Zurück vor den Urknall Amazon.de salesrank relative to stringy benchmark at 6PM Berlin time.

1 December 0.9
1 January 0.5 (2010)
1 February 1.1
...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/3100039106/?tag=pfamazon01-20
The benchmark used here for comparison is the average salesrank of the three currently most popular string books on the German market. One can see that Züruck, a Loop cosmology book, is doing approximately as well as the top three stringies (typically these are translations of two Brian Greene books and one by Lisa Randall.)

===============

Loop publication index uses the Spires base with DESY keywords "spin, foam", "field theory, group", "quantum gravity, loop space", and "quantum cosmology, loop space". Figures seem nearly stable.

2005 40
2006 82
2007 122
2008 137
2009 143 (as of 4 February 2010)

Link for 2008 Loop papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2008&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

Link for 2009 Loop papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2009&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

=====

"Top-cited high-energy physics articles during 2008", dated January 14, 2009,
from SLAC-Stanford's Symmetry-Breaking
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/bre...ited-high-energy-physics-articles-during-2008String citation standing in the Spires top 50 HEP has dropped. In the early 2000s it would often be that around twelve out of the top fifty would be recent string. And the rankings of those twelve were often near the top of the 50 list. By recent, I mean papers that appeared in the past five years, counting back from the year in question. For the year 2008, it would be 2004-2008.

In 2008 four of the fifty top-cited HEP papers were recent string. And the four recent string papers that made the top 50 list had average citecount of just under 180, which put them down near the bottom of the list. Their ranks were 37, 44, 48, 49.

In 2009 only one of the top-cited HEP fifty, was a recent string paper. And it was number 33, two thirds of the way down the list. The paper in question was cited 222 times.

Details were given in this post:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=372499
Here's the link to Spires topcites listings:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2009/annual.shtml

=================

Trouble with Physics, Amazon.com salesrank compared with five most popular string titles.

1 January 0.6 (2009)
1 February 0.7
1 March 0.5
1 April 0.6
1 May 0.6
1 June 0.7
1 July 1.9
1 August 0.6
1 September 0.6
1 October 0.4
1 November 0.5
1 December 0.5
1 January 0.3 (2010)
1 February 0.3
...Readings taken at noon Pacific, averaged around the first of the month to reduce random fluctuation.

 

[marcus]

I made a spot check of how those two popular books were doing, today.

Züruck vor den Urknall (back before the big bang) is the first popular book in any language that is entirely (or even primarily) based on the Loop approach, so it is interesting to track how it is doing in the German market.

The Trouble with Physics gives brief descriptions of several non-string approaches quantizing geometry, but it does not adopt anyone in particular. The scope is broader. Since we do not know how various approaches will work out, the book is critical of the narrow concentration on string (especially by the research establishment in the Usa)

Zurück Amazon.de salesrank relative to stringy benchmark at 6PM Berlin time.

1 December 0.9
1 January 0.5 (2010)
1 February 1.1
...
8 February 2.4

http://www.amazon.com/dp/3100039106/?tag=pfamazon01-20 The book came on the market in April 2009.
The benchmark used here for comparison is the average salesrank of the three currently most popular string books on the German market (typically these are translations of two Brian Greene books and one by Lisa Randall.)

On 8 February at 6PM central european time Züruck ranked 8315 and the three most popular stringies (Stoff, Elegante, Verborgene) ranked 13579, 21073, 24027 for an average of 19559.7 and a ratio of 2.4

The Smolin book appeared in September 2006. It stayed near the top of the physics bestseller list for the first two years and is less prominent now, but still selling.

Trouble amazon.com salesrank compared with stringy top-5 benchmark

1 December 0.5
1 January 0.3 (2010)
1 February 0.3
...
8 February 0.3

At noon pacific, 8 February, Trouble ranked 28293 and the top five stringies (elegant, fabric, parallel, elegant paperback, hyperspace) ranked 3013, 4486, 5263, 13977, 18701, for an average of 9088.0 and a ratio of 0.3

 

[marcus]

String publication for three successive years, measured using the Harvard abstracts database with keywords superstring, M-theory, brane, AdS/CFT, heterotic, compactification.

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

On 15 February 2010, the successive year figures were 5309, 5181, 5031. Seems to be a slight downward trend.

============
Here's how string publication looks for the first month of four successive years:

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2010: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

As of 15 February the January publication figures were 795, 800, 699, 395
The last can be expected to increase as late arrivals are entered in the database.

===============

Loop publication index uses the Spires base with DESY keywords "spin, foam", "field theory, group", "quantum gravity, loop space", and "quantum cosmology, loop space". Figures seem nearly stable.

2005 40
2006 82
2007 122
2008 137
2009 143 (as of 15 February 2010)

Link for 2008 Loop papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2008&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

Link for 2009 Loop papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2009&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

=====

Here are links to Spires "top-50" listings
for 2008:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2008/annual.shtml
for 2009:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2009/annual.shtml

These are reported in articles such as: "Top-cited high-energy physics articles during 2008",
from SLAC-Stanford's online magazine Symmetry-Breaking
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/bre...ited-high-energy-physics-articles-during-2008

String citation standing in the Spires top 50 HEP list has dropped. In the early 2000s it would often happen that around twelve out of the top fifty would be recent string papers. And the rankings of those twelve were often near the top of the 50 list. By recent, I mean papers that appeared in the past five years, counting back from the year in question. For the year 2008, it would be 2004-2008.

In 2008 four of the fifty top-cited HEP papers were recent string. And the four recent string papers that made the top 50 list had average citecount of just under 180, which put them down near the bottom of the list. Their ranks were 37, 44, 48, 49.

In 2009 only one of the top-cited HEP fifty, was a recent string paper. And it was number 33, two thirds of the way down the list. The paper in question was cited 222 times.

Details were given in this post:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=372499
Here's the link to Spires topcites listings:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2009/annual.shtml

=================

 

[marcus]

String publication for three successive years, measured using the Harvard abstracts database with keywords superstring, M-theory, brane, AdS/CFT, heterotic, compactification.

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

As of 26 February 2010, the successive year figures were 5310, 5181, 5251. Seems to be steady or with a slight downward trend.

============
Here's how string publication looks for the first month of four successive years:

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2010: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

As of 26 February the January publication figures were 794, 800, 701, 410
Based on past experience, the recent January figure might be roughly stable by now, but it could increase as late arrivals are entered in the database.

===============

Loop publication index uses the Spires base with DESY keywords "spin, foam", "field theory, group", "quantum gravity, loop space", and "quantum cosmology, loop space". Figures seem nearly stable.

2005 40
2006 82
2007 122
2008 137
2009 146 (as of 26 February 2010)

Link for 2008 Loop papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2008&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=

Link for 2009 Loop papers:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+K+SPIN%2CFOAM+OR+DK+FIELD+THEORY%2C+GROUP+OR+DK+QUANTUM+GRAVITY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+OR+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY%2C+LOOP+SPACE+AND+DATE+%3D+2009&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE= ===============
on 27 Feb. readings for Züruck (at 6 PM central Europe time) and Trouble (at noon pacific time):
Züruck 0.18 (from a ratio of 5255.0/29062)
Trouble 0.353 (from 8843.0/25034)

The German publisher has announced that a paperback edition for 9 Euro will be forthcoming, so some people are advance-ordering that instead of ordering the hardbound edition for 19 Euro. Or simply waiting. Sales apt to be slack until the paperback edition comes on the market--probably not until September 2010.

 

[marcus]

Around the first of the month I track the salesrank of two popular non-string books. I take readings as of 6 PM central European time, for the German book Züruck vor den Urknall, and at noon Pacific for the Usa book Trouble with Physics. As a benchmark for comparison the rank is compared with the 3 most popular stringy books on the German market, or to the 5 most popular on the Usa market. I average around the first of the month to get rid of some of the random fluctuation.

So far the numbers have been

             Züruck    Trouble
27 February  0.181      0.353
28 February  0.885      0.236
1 March      1.345      0.513
2 March      0.213      0.693
3 March

On 1 March at 6PM Berlin time, Z ranked 13120 and the top three stringies (Stoff, Elegante, Verborgene) ranked 9217, 10409, 33295 for an average of 17640.3 making the ratio 1.345.
On 1 March at noon Pacific T ranked 13958 and the top five stringies (fabric, parallel, elegant, hyperspace, elegant paperback) ranked 3467, 3515, 8085, 9643, 11072 for an average of 7156.4 and ratio 0.513.

The particular interest of Züruck vor den Urknall (Back before the big bang) is that it is the first wide-audience book to appear in any language which is entirely based on Loop quantum geometry rather than string. The author describes what has been learned about how the geometry of the universe evolves in the Loop model.

On 2 March at noon Pacific T ranked 14680 and the top five stringies (fabric, parallel, elegant, little, hyperspace) ranked 4787, 5862, 8269, 15694, 16237 for an average of 10169.8 and a ratio of 0.693.

 

[marcus]

Today (3 March) at 6PM Berlin time, the German edition of Smolin's book was number one Theoretical Physics bestseller on the German market and Bojowald's Züruck vor den Urknall was number two.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/295042/&tag=

==initial items on the bestseller list==
1. Die Zukunft der Physik: Probleme der String-Theorie und wie es weitergeht von Lee Smolin
Preis: EUR 24,95

2. Zurück vor den Urknall: Die ganze Geschichte des Universums von Martin Bojowald
Preis: EUR 19,95

3. Verborgene Universen. Eine Reise in den extradimensionalen Raum von Lisa Randall
Preis: EUR 10,95

4. Das elegante Universum: Superstrings, verborgene Dimensionen und die Suche nach der Weltformel von Brian Greene
Preis: EUR 9,95

5. Grundzüge der Relativitätstheorie von Albert Einstein
Preis: EUR 24,95
...
...
==endquote==

You can see that Smolin and Bojowald are doing OK even though their books are hardbound first editions and cost more than, say, the Brian Greene paperback.

Here are the salesrank ratios around the first of this month.

             Züruck    Trouble
27 February  0.181      0.353
28 February  0.885      0.236
1 March      1.345      0.513
2 March      0.213      0.693
3 March      1.392      0.376

On 3 March at 6PM Berlin time, Züruck ranked 7337 and the top three stringies (Stoff, Verborgene, Elegante) ranked 5361, 11721, 13547 for an average of 10209.7 making the ratio 1.392.

The particular interest of Züruck vor den Urknall (Back before the big bang) is that it is the first wide-audience book to appear in any language which is entirely based on Loop quantum geometry rather than string. The author describes what has been learned about how the geometry of the universe evolves in the Loop model.

It's 5-day average, which I'll record for the 1 March, to get a smoothed longterm record, is 0.803

Zurück Amazon.de salesrank relative to stringy benchmark at 6PM Berlin time.

1 December 0.9
1 January 0.5 (2010)
1 February 1.1
1 March 0.8

For comparison, here is how Smolin's book has been doing in the Usa market. The average around the first of March was 0.434.

Trouble amazon.com salesrank compared with stringy top-5 benchmark

1 December 0.5
1 January 0.3 (2010)
1 February 0.3
1 March 0.4

 

[marcus]

String research publication the first two months of four consecutive years. Keywords superstring, M-theory, AdS/CFT, brane, compactificiation, heterotic:

2007: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2008: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2009: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

2010: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n...txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

As of 8 March the Jan+Feb figures are 1122, 1129, 1110, 637
The figure for the first two months of 2010 can be expected to increase as late arrivals are added to the database.
========================

Here is the longterm salesrank ratio record for The Trouble with Physics
(Amazon.com salesrank compared with five most popular string titles)

1 January 0.6 (2009)
1 February 0.7
1 March 0.5
1 April 0.6
1 May 0.6
1 June 0.7
1 July 1.9
1 August 0.6
1 September 0.6
1 October 0.4
1 November 0.5
1 December 0.5
1 January 0.3 (2010)
1 February 0.3
1 March 0.4
...
...
8 March 0.7Readings taken at noon Pacific, averaged around the first of the month to reduce random fluctuation.
As a sporadic spot check, at noon on 8 March Trouble ranked 9469 and the top five stringies (fabric, elegant, parallel, little, hyperspace) ranked 3789, 5361, 8317, 8374, 8964 for an average of 6910.0 and a ratio of 0.74.

__________________

 

[marcus]

Looking back to September 2007, when the first paperback edition hit the market, The Trouble with Physics has done surprisingly well. Here is its longterm salesrank ratio record, with some recent spot checks.
(Amazon.com salesrank compared with five most popular string titles)

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=1986028#post1986028
1 September 6.4 (2007)
1 October 6.5
1 November 5.2
1 December 2.4
1 January 1.5 (2008)
1 February 1.3
1 March 0.4
1 April 0.6
1 May 1.0
1 June 1.0
1 July 0.5
1 August 0.4
1 September 0.8
1 October 0.4
1 November 0.6
1 December 0.6
1 January 0.6 (2009)
1 February 0.7
1 March 0.5
1 April 0.6
1 May 0.6
1 June 0.7
1 July 1.9
1 August 0.6
1 September 0.6
1 October 0.4
1 November 0.5
1 December 0.5
1 January 0.3 (2010)
1 February 0.3
1 March 0.4
...
...
8 March 0.7
...
11 March 0.7
12 March 0.8Readings taken at noon Pacific, averaged around the first of the month to reduce random fluctuation.
As a sporadic spot check, at noon on 8 March Trouble ranked 9469 and the top five stringies (fabric, elegant, parallel, little, hyperspace) ranked 3789, 5361, 8317, 8374, 8964 for an average of 6910.0 and a ratio of 0.74.

At noon on 12 March Trouble ranked 9734 and the top five stringies (elegant, fabric, parallel, elegant paperback, little) ranked 4058, 5143, 5370, 9168, 16168 for an average of 7981.4 and a ratio of 0.82.

 

[marcus]

The Trouble with Physics has a somewhat unusual record. It came out hardbound in 2006 and paperback in 2007, and has not sunk out of sight as rapidly as some similar books. Various new stringy books from around the same time have come out, by talented writers, and sunk into oblivion marketwise. Two (as I recall) by Susskind, one by Randall, and various mass appeal things like "string for dummies" or "complete idiot's guide to..." or "...demystified". Currently there is one by Gubser which romanticizes doing string research by comparing it with rock-climbing, and has a lot about himself and how he likes the mountains and adrenalin etc. Susskind's latest has a lot about himself and his travels and jogging and arguing with Stephen Hawking etc. So I'd say they are doing the right things to sell pop-sci books. But it is not catching on in the market as well as Trouble has. Seemingly not as durable.

I keep expecting Trouble to drop out of sight like the other recent popularizations written by scientists. But here is the recent record of how it's doing, after more than 3 years, compared with the topfive stringy benchmark. (Which I use because it represents, in a sense, the scale of the problem in public perception which Smolin's book addresses.)

1 January 0.3 (2010)
1 February 0.3
1 March 0.4
...
...
8 March 0.7
...
11 March 0.7
12 March 0.8
13 March 0.9
14 March 0.5
...

At noon on 13 March, Trouble ranked 6815 and the top five stringies (elegant, parallel, hyperspace, fabric, elegant paperback) ranked 4526, 4952, 5717, 7734, 8387 for an average of 6263.2 and a ratio of 0.92.

At noon on 14 March, Trouble ranked 12562 and the top five stringies (parallel, hyperspace, fabric, elegant, little) ranked 3853, 5246, 5862, 8223, 11054 for an average of 6847.6 and a ratio of 0.55.