Sociology of Physics: comment and indices

marcus · Aug 26, 2011

Learning how to use Inspire search, which will be replacing Spires.

type this into the box:
keyword:"quantum gravity: loop space" OR "quantum cosmology: loop space" OR "spin: foam" and date=2011

You get this:
http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...n_search=Search&sf=&so=d&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (161 found)

161 records are found, presumably will increase between now and yearend. Perhaps, since about 8/12 of the year is over now, it could increase to something like 12/8 of present size. And perhaps not. Hard to guess.

Let's do that also for the years 2005 through 2010
LOOP RESEARCH BY YEAR (Inspire beta)
2005 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...n_search=Search&sf=&so=d&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (49 found)
2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...n_search=Search&sf=&so=d&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (105 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...n_search=Search&sf=&so=d&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (152 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...n_search=Search&sf=&so=d&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (189 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...n_search=Search&sf=&so=d&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (200 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...n_search=Search&sf=&so=d&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (201 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...n_search=Search&sf=&so=d&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (161 found)Today I did a spot check of the popular string book market. At noon the top five books (grand, e-elegant, elegant, hidden, e-grand) ranked 2017, 2539, 4423, 5021, 5846, for an average of 3969.

You can look back and compare. This autumn (perhaps as late as November) PBS will be coming on with a Brian Greene special (we've seen flashy visual effects previewed). This time the basis is his Fabric of the Cosmos. This will boost sales of the book.

marcus · Aug 27, 2011

I'm still learning how to use Inspire. Here is a corrected version of what I posted yesterday.

LOOP RESEARCH BY YEAR (Inspire beta)
2005 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...=&d2m=&d2y=2005&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (42 found)
2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...=&d2m=&d2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (77 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...=&d2m=&d2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (120 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...=&d2m=&d2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (142 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...=&d2m=&d2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (145 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...=&d2m=&d2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (153 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...=&d2m=&d2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (123 found as of 27 August)

Inspire will double count if you aren't careful with the settings--a paper has two dates the year it first appeared (say as preprint on arxiv) and the final version date (say as published in journal). What Inspire does is good but you need to consciously select which type of date to use in finding the papers of that year.I did another spot check of the popular string book market. At noon 27 August the top five books (grand, e-elegant, hidden, e-grand, elegant) ranked 1431, 2014, 2970, 4065, 4291 for an average of 2954.

marcus · Aug 30, 2011

Continuing to learn how to use the beta version of Inspire, slated to replace Spires.
Here is a search for string papers using the terms "string model", "membrane model" and "AdS/CFT correspondence"

STRING RESEARCH BY YEAR (Inspire beta)
2005 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2005&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (988 found)
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 (1051 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1127 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1132 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1044 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (675 as of 30 August, annualized = 1013)

Out of curiosity I did the corresponding thing to the 2011 count from the previous post (loop research):

2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...=&d2m=&d2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (124 as of 30 August annualized 186)

marcus · Sep 2, 2011

Continued experimentation with the new Stanford/SLAC search tool, Inspire.
Here is a search for string papers using the terms "string model" and "membrane model". This time I omitted the term "AdS/CFT correspondence"

STRING&MEMBRANE RESEARCH BY YEAR (Inspire beta)
2005 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2005&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (981 found)
2006 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2006&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1012 found)
2007 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2007&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (939 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (947 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (815 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (673 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (444 as of 2 Sept, annualized 666)

Turning to the popular book market, at noon 2 September the top five books (grand, hidden, e-elegant, elegant, e-grand) ranked 1707, 2917, 3337, 4128, 4199 for an average of 3258.
If you scroll back to post #250, you'll notice that this salesrank average is comparable to what we saw back in 2007-2008. But not yet on par with levels seen in 2009-2010 prior to the September appearance of the Hawking multiverse book.
_____

marcus · Sep 7, 2011

Update of LQG table (categories loop quantum gravity, loop quantum cosmology, spin foam)
LOOP RESEARCH BY YEAR (Inspire beta)

2005 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2005&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (42 found)
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 (145 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (152 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (129 as of 7 Sep, annualized > 180)

A simple way to estimate the annual rate is to type "1 1 2011" (1 January 2011) into this:
http://howlonguntil.net/
It will tell the number of days since beginning of year. In this case, today being 7 Sep, it says 250.
So multiply the number of papers so far by 365/250.

In this case 129*365/250 = 188

Just a rough estimate. Could be 150 or 160. But gives an idea.

marcus · Sep 14, 2011

marcus · Sep 16, 2011

Stringy topfive salesrank averages for mid-September.

13 Sept 2174
14 Sept 2232
15 Sept 2022
16 Sept 2686
17 Sept ...

At Pacific noon on 16 September the five most popular string books (grand, e-elegant, hidden, elegant, e-grand) had amazon.com salesranks 1605, 1937, 3018, 3206, 3663 for an average of 2686. I've been recording midmonth salesrank averages. For comparison, here's how they went in 2011:

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)

January 2011      1252
February 2011      223
March 2011         349
April 2011         649
May 2011           676
June 2011         1153
July 2011         1257
August 2011       2068

Also keeping track of several other indices, some of which are:

Number of recent string papers making the top fifty in the annual Spires HEP topcite list

Code:

year (some omitted for brev.)   2001    2003    2005    2007    2009    2010  
recent work highly cited in year  12       6       2       1       1       0

This gauges the quality/significance of current work by how much it gets cited by other researchers. Here a paper is counted as recent if it appeared in the previous five years.

Annual first-time faculty hires (US and Canada) in HEP theory as a whole, and in string, averaged over 3 year periods, with prelim. estim. for 2011

Code:

period                   1999-2001    2002-2004   2005-2007    2008-2010    2011
annual HEP theory hires    18           24          23           13          11 
annual string hires         9            8           6            2           0

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

Code:

Strings 2003 Kyoto     396
Strings 2005 Toronto   415
Strings 2007 Madrid    440
Strings 2009 Rome      450
Strings 2010 Texas A&M 193
Strings 2011 Uppsala   265

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)

http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=3715
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php

http://www-conference.slu.se/strings2011/
https://www.akademikonferens.se/list.jsf?conf=strings2011-S

marcus · Sep 18, 2011

Here's another index we've been tracking:
LOOP RESEARCH BY YEAR (loop quantum gravity, loop quantum cosmology, spin foam)

2005 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2005&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (42 found)
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 (145 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (152 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (134 as of 18 Sept, annualized > 180)

To illustrate, http://howlonguntil.net/ 260
In this case 134*365/260 = 188
The annualized rate for the first 260 days of the year has been noticeably higher than the rate in past years. I've no idea if this will persist, or how much to expect it to subside.

In the pop science market, multiverse books continue strong. The combined string topfive salesrank for 17 September was 1793 making the mid-month average for September 2181. Here's what the past year or so looks like.

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)

September 2010    1060 
October 2010      1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011      1252
February 2011      223
March 2011         349
April 2011         649
May 2011           676
June 2011         1153
July 2011         1257
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181

marcus · Sep 26, 2011

marcus · Sep 29, 2011

marcus · Oct 1, 2011

142*365/273 = 190
749*365/273 = 1001

Already by 1 October there were from the LQG-SF-LQC community as many papers (142) as appeared in the whole of 2008. Something must be stimulating this increase of activity. The year is only 3/4 over.

It may be the perception that the correct smooth limit has been achieved. By this I mean the limit where one keeps the macroscopic size of the region constant and let's the discreteness parameter gamma go to zero--a bit like what happens to discrete chunks in the kitchen blender. Seeing this work out right could, I guess, motivate researchers with a sense of possibilities opening up.

There was the August paper by Magliaro Perini and the September one by Bianchi Ding.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.2258"
http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.6538"
Also important developments by Lewandowski's Warsaw group and by Dittrich's group at Golm.
Insiders would have had advance inkling of these results which can be seen as signposts of success for the program.

Again, at noon 1 Oct the pop-string top five (e-elegant, grand, e-grand, hidden, e-hidden) averaged a salesrank of 2536.

marcus · Oct 7, 2011

The picture is largely unchanged from 6 days ago. At noon the five most popular stringy books
(primarily about multiverse, not string/M itself) were grand, e-elegant, hidden, e-hidden, e-grand, and ranked 1746, 1922, 2097, 2840, 3962, for an average of 2513.

DESY has not gotten around to cataloging the new Loop papers so the count is still 142 as it was on 1 October. But new String/M papers have been registered so the count there has changed slightly. The annualized rates are

142*365/279 = 186
754*365/279 = 986

STRING,MEMBRANE,AdS/CFT RESEARCH BY YEAR
(search terms "string model", "membrane model" and "AdS/CFT correspondence")
2005 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2005&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (988 found)
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 (1050 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1128 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1132 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1046 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (754 as of 7 Oct, annualized = 986)

marcus · Oct 8, 2011

LOOP RESEARCH BY YEAR (loop quantum gravity, loop quantum cosmology, spin foam)
2005 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2005&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (42 found)
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 (145 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (152 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (148 as of 8 Oct, annualized > 190)

To illustrate, http://howlonguntil.net/ 280
As of 8 October the annualized rate is 148*365/280 = 193
So far this year the rate seems noticeably higher than in past years.

Just today DESY library also logged a bunch of string/M papers bringing the previous count up to 773 so the annualized rate is
773*365/280 = 1008
It would seem the tentative lesson learned is "Wait for Saturday." Then DESY numbers will be more complete (assuming this pattern persists.)

marcus · Oct 13, 2011

For the midmonth noon salesrank averages
12 October 2194
13 October 2872
14 October ...
15 October ...
16 October
17 October
18 October

For example at noon pacific on 13 Oct the top five stringy books (e-elegant, grand, e-grand, hidden, e-hidden) ranked 1236, 1512, 3173, 3758, 4679, for an average of 2872.

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)

September 2010    1060 
October 2010      1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011      1252
February 2011      223
March 2011         349
April 2011         649
May 2011           676
June 2011         1153
July 2011         1257
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181

Ranks tended to be much higher in the couple of years before the appearance of the Hawking and the Greene multiverse books. Books which invoke the multiplicity of possible versions of physics inherent in string/M but which do not go much into string by way of specifics. To see the history of this index back to some sample months in 2007, go back to post #250.

Four new Loop gravity papers have appeared in the last few days, but have not yet been logged by DESY, which updates only about once a week. So the total for 2011 so far is 152 instead of 148.
Annualized: 152*365/286 = 194
Compare with the previous post #263
The annualized rate for Loop research remains somewhat higher than it has been in past years. Not clear why or whether this will persist through yearend.
FWIW: 776*365/286 = 990

marcus · Oct 14, 2011

For the midmonth noon salesrank averages
12 October 2194
13 October 2872
14 October 3163
15 October ...
16 October ...
17 October
18 October

At noon pacific on 14 Oct the top five stringy books (e-elegant, grand, e-grand, hidden, elegant) ranked 1336, 1598, 3174, 3578, 6131, for an average of 3163.

Keeping tabs on research trends:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb

http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb

http://howlonguntil.net/

marcus · Oct 16, 2011

For the midmonth noon salesrank averages
12 October 2194
13 October 2872
14 October 3163
15 October 2060
16 October 2063
17 October ...
18 October ...

At noon 16 Oct the top five stringy books were grand, e-elegant, e-grand, e-hidden,hidden, elegant. It tends almost always to be the same five, just possibly in different order.

Keeping tabs on research trends:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (still missing a couple that havn't been assigned keyword classifiers yet) 151, annualized 151*365/288 = 191

http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb 786, annualized 786*365/288 = 996

http://howlonguntil.net/

Just as some random string Sociology, or related cultural Anthropology there was a great CERN Christmas party in 2006 that deserves to be remembered. I will get the link.
http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2007/01/cern-th-2007.html
The blogger, whose web-handle is Jester, especially liked the string "Pope" who was dressed in gaudy ecclesiastical garb and who piously intoned: "Our Witten which art in Princeton..."

"...Give us this day our daily string,
And forgive us our theory,
As we forgive those who do phenomenology.
Lead us not into experiment,
And deliver us from tests.
For thine is the arXiv,..."

marcus · Oct 18, 2011

Time to update the midmonth pop-string salesrank record.

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)

September 2010    1060 
October 2010      1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011      1252
February 2011      223
March 2011         349
April 2011         649
May 2011           676
June 2011         1153
July 2011         1257
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181
October 2011      2563

marcus · Oct 30, 2011

marcus · Nov 4, 2011

A new PBS NOVA series with Brian Greene has started, this time based on "Fabric of the Cosmos". High-power computergraphic visuals + lots of wonders. Sales of string books are strongly up. The top 5 are actually all Brian Greene.

As of noon 4 November the five most popular stringy books are fabric, e-fabric, hidden, e-hidden, and e-elegant, with an average salesrank of 1135.
See post #265 for a longer-term record of the topfive average salesrank.

================
Baylor University in Texas has hired a string theorist! According to the Theoretical Particle Physics Jobs Rumor Mill 2011 saw about 13 first-time faculty hires in Usa and Canada, but until recently it appeared that none of the hires were in string. However it is now reported that Antonino Flachi has been hired to a first-time faculty position at Baylor.
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php?id=archive:2011
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php

Annual first-time faculty hires (US and Canada) in HEP theory as a whole, and in string, averaged over 3 year periods, with prelim. estim. for 2011

Code:

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

The three year period 2008-2010 showed an average annual rate of 13 hires per year overall in High Energy Physics Theory. So 2011, with 13, shows no change in overall hires. The annual rate of string hires does seem to have slacked off some, but is not zero (as appeared earlier).
A more detailed tabulation by a prof in the Toronto physics departent:
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
Some comment on the trends:
http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=3715

In case you haven't heard of Baylor and are curious, "Baylor University in Waco, Texas, is a private Baptist university, and a nationally ranked liberal arts institution."
http://www.baylor.edu/
http://www.baylor.edu/about/
The current president of Baylor University is Kenneth W. Starr, of Whitewater/Lewinsky/Prop 8 fame.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Starr

======================
String and Loop research publication shows some change from last year. This year's figures now seem roughly stable:

marcus said:

keeping tabs on research trends, as of 30 october:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb 157, annualized 157*365/302 = 190

http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb 813, annualized 813*365/302 = 983

http://howlonguntil.net/

Annualized rates updated as of 4 November
164*365/307=195
826*365/307=982

marcus · Nov 11, 2011

Pythagorean · Nov 12, 2011

Marcus, do you look much at other theoretical stuffs; I'd be interested in hearing about nonlinear dynamics, chaos, and complexity and the like.

marcus · Nov 13, 2011

Pythagorean said:

Marcus, do you look much at other theoretical stuffs; I'd be interested in hearing about nonlinear dynamics, chaos, and complexity and the like.

Hi Pythagorean, those topics strike me more as MATH topics. In this thread I am focused more on some indicators of where fundamental physics (geometry and particle physics) is going.
At various times in the past I've been interested in some of what you mention. Computational complexity for one thing. My wife did her thesis in that, and some friends were researching in that area. Plus it is just intrinsically interesting.

But I can't respond to those themes in this thread---it would just go way off topic. You could start a thread in one of the MATH forums. Or even in one of the Physics forums. You might get some discussion there. I'm not sure where the best place would be.

Here, even though the string fad in theoretical physics may be largely finished and there might be declining interest, I want to keep on consistently keeping track of some things.
In the popular book market (which does not reflect professional research trends) there is again an upsurge in sales of stringy books.

I want to record the noon salesrank readings for a few days around 15th November.
The stringy top five (fabric, hidden, e-fabric, e-hidden, grand) ranked 569, 798, 1074, 1132, 1165 for an average of 948.
The surge in sales has been associated with a new Brian Green Nova series based on "Fabric of the Cosmos" that just started this month, plus back in January his new book "Hidden Reality" came out. So most of the top five string books are various versions of these.

I want a November midmonth average to adjoin to this record:

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)

September 2010    1060 
October 2010      1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011      1252
February 2011      223
March 2011         349
April 2011         649
May 2011           676
June 2011         1153
July 2011         1257
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181
October 2011      2563
November 2011     ...

So I will average these noon readings:
13 November 948
14 November ...
15 November ...
16 November ...
17 November ...

Pythagorean · Nov 13, 2011

marcus said:

Hi Pythagorean, those topics strike me more as MATH topics. In this thread I am focused more on some indicators of where fundamental physics (geometry and particle physics) is going.
At various times in the past I've been interested in some of what you mention. Computational complexity for one thing. My wife did her thesis in that, and some friends were researching in that area. Plus it is just intrinsically interesting.

But I can't respond to those themes in this thread---it would just go way off topic. You could start a thread in one of the MATH forums. Or even in one of the Physics forums. You might get some discussion there. I'm not sure where the best place would be.

I'm sure this is mostly semantic, but I was taught "nonlinear dynamics" in my "modern physics" courses (we were given a choice between GR and nonlinear and we unanimously chose nonlinear). It's mostly just an extension of "classical mechanics" but there's also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_chaos" : a look at the interface and contradictions between classical and quantum mechanics.

Here, even though the string fad in theoretical physics may be largely finished and there might be declining interest, I want to keep on consistently keeping track of some things.
In the popular book market (which does not reflect professional research trends) there is again an upsurge in sales of stringy books.

I understand; I do not mean to take away from the stringiness.

I am also interested in what the non-professional public thinks of complexity. Have you ever used google insights? You might find it useful in your analysis; for instance, if i compare popular search terms 'complexity' and 'chaos' I see that chaos is (naturally) a much more searched topic, but also that the rhythms are out-of-phase: 'chaos' sees peaks on the weekend (indicating the public is mostly googling the topic under one of it's many definitions) while 'complexity' peaks during the weekdays (indicating it's fellow researchers or students in physics and biology doing literature reviews and learning.)

marcus · Nov 13, 2011

Pythagaorean, thanks for the pointer to Google Insights. I have not yet gotten the knack or habit of using that, but maybe in time will. As I said I don't want to get into a discussion of complexity math, or of non-linear dynamics, here in this thread. But you can start a thread in one of the physics forums, if you wish. Sounds like it might be an interesting topic.

Since we are starting a new page for this thread, I will recap several of the indices we are tracking

Number of recent string papers making the top fifty in the annual Spires HEP topcite list

Code:

year (some omitted for brev.)   2001    2003    2005    2007    2009    2010  
recent work highly cited in year  12       6       2       1       1       0

This gauges the quality/significance of current work by how much it gets cited by other researchers. Here a paper is counted as recent if it appeared in the previous five years.

Annual first-time faculty hires (US and Canada) in HEP theory as a whole, and in string, averaged over 3 year periods, with prelim. estim. for 2011

Code:

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

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

Code:

Strings 2003 Kyoto     396
Strings 2005 Toronto   415
Strings 2007 Madrid    440
Strings 2009 Rome      450
Strings 2010 Texas A&M 193
Strings 2011 Uppsala   265
Strings 2012 Munich    ...

marcus · Nov 14, 2011

To continue this record of midmonth salerank averages, tracking string popularity with general public, I will take noon salesrank readings for a few days around 15th November.

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)

September 2010    1060 
October 2010      1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011      1252
February 2011      223
March 2011         349
April 2011         649
May 2011           676
June 2011         1153
July 2011         1257
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181
October 2011      2563
November 2011     ...

13 November 948
14 November 1250
15 November ...
16 November ...
17 November ...

At Pacific noon on 14 November, the stringy top five (fabric, e-fabric, hidden, elegant, e-hidden) ranked 518, 1169, 1341, 1448, 1775 for an average of 1250.

I found a nice gadget http://code.google.com/p/citations-gadget/
http://code.google.com/p/citations-gadget/
This will give you an author's total lifetime citations. I tried putting "carlo rovelli" in the author box and it gave back
that there were 229 cited publications (which I think is about right, InSpire lists 231 but that's close enough.) And a total of 14,751 citations.

The new director of Princeton IAS:
Citations for 'robbert dijkgraaf' : 8102
Cited Publications: 75
H-Index: 41

Citations for 'stefano liberati' : 3488
Cited Publications: 126
H-Index: 34

Citations for 'hermann nicolai' : 6822
Cited Publications: 163
H-Index: 45

Citations for 'abhay ashtekar' : 14690
Cited Publications: 195
H-Index: 61

marcus · Nov 15, 2011

13 November 948
14 November 1250
15 November 1419
16 November ...
17 November ...

marcus · Nov 17, 2011

13 November 948
14 November 1250
15 November 1419
16 November 1462
17 November 1135

So the midmonth average for November is 1243

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)

September 2010    1060 
October 2010      1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011      1252
February 2011      223
March 2011         349
April 2011         649
May 2011           676
June 2011         1153
July 2011         1257
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181
October 2011      2563
November 2011     1243

marcus · Nov 20, 2011

I'm trying to get an InSpire search that will work as well as the old Spires search for LQG and LQC phenomenology, testing-related research. Here is one:
find d > 2008 and k loop space and (quantum gravity or quantum cosmology) and (gravitational radiation or inflation or power spectrum or cosmic background radiation or primordial)

http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=Search&sf=&so=d&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb

The same with more to a page:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...Search&sf=&so=d&rm=citation&rg=100&sc=0&of=hb
Stanford says they are going to turn Spires off. So we have to switch over. Here is the old Spires search:

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

marcus · Nov 20, 2011

This InSpire search is designed to turn up observational test-related Loop gravity/cosmology papers. It uses categories established by the DESY librarians. The publication date is 2008 onwards.
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...Search&sf=&so=d&rm=citation&rg=100&sc=0&of=hb
the DESY categories are gravitational radiation, inflation, power spectrum, cosmic background radiation, primordial---in conjunction with LQG/LQC.
So that is a 4-year stretch, and it finds 46 papers.

Loop pheno papers (increasingly observational test-related)

Code:

(2000-2003     2004-2007     2008-2011
    6              27           46

marcus · Nov 30, 2011

Reviewing the pop-string market, in March-August 2010 we saw a lowpoint in string book sales, with salesranks at their highest in several years. Then we saw a big rebound driven by some (incidentally stringy) multiverse books. Hawking "grand" came out in September 2010, Greene "hidden" in January 2011, and then in November 2011 there was another surge caused by the PBS NOVA Greene series based on "fabric".

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)

January 2007:     4396
February 2007:    3789
November 2008:    3711
July 2009:        6485  
March 2010:       7521
April 2010:      11983
May 2010:         6884
June 2010:        9731
July 2010:        8461
August 2010:      9606
September 2010:   1060 
October 2010:     1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011      1252
February 2011      223
March 2011         349
April 2011         649
May 2011           676
June 2011         1153
July 2011         1257
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181
October 2011      2563
November 2011     1243

To keep tabs on this I made a spot check. At noon on 29 November the topfive average was 2054 and at noon 30 November the five most popular stringy books (hidden, fabric, grand, paperback-hidden, e-elegant) ranked 794, 1124, 1492, 2874, 2999 for an average of 1857.

marcus · Dec 6, 2011

marcus · Dec 8, 2011

The issue of HEP-theory first-time faculty hires came up at NEW blog recently so I did a recount at the "Jobs Rumor Mill" (only source I know for this) to register any changes/corrections from last time. There were 12 outstanding offers from US and Canada physics departments. Two had not yet been marked "accepted". But that may simply be an omission on the Rumor Mill's part.
Annual first-time faculty hires (US and Canada) in HEP theory as a whole, and in string, averaged over 3 year periods, with prelim. estim. for 2011

Code:

period                 1999-2001    2002-2004   2005-2007    2008-2010    2011
annual HEP theory hires   18           24          23           13        10-12 
annual string hires        9            8           6            2          1

Recent discussion:
http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=4219#comment-101129
Sources:
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php?id=archive:2011
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=3715

marcus · Dec 15, 2011

Getting the midmonth December pop-string averages, we have that
at noon on 15 Dec the five most popular stringy books (hidden, fabric, grand, paperback hidden, parallel) ranked 816, 1139, 1612, 2015, 4448 for an average of 2006.

14 December 2179
15 December 2006
16 December ...

marcus · Dec 16, 2011

The chart at the U Toronto site showing first time faculty hires in High Energy Physics Theory has been updated for 2011
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
It shows 11 hires with one being string.
The physicist who posts the charts is a HEP theorist who works in various branches of beyond SM theory including string but also lattice field theory: Erich Poppitz. An interesting mix of research interests, it seemed to me.
2011 was the first year (since the record started in 1994) when "lattice" hires exceeded "string". Back in 1994 hires in the lattice gauge theory category were (recorded by Poppitz as) zero. Since then, string has tended to be overwhelmingly favored except for just recently.

Code:

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

Altough the string research program shows some signs of dwindling, stringy book sales to the public are unquestionably strong. Partly I suppose this is due to recent multiverse books such as Grand Design and Hidden Reality, partly also to a new Brian Greene television series. For whatever reason, at noon on 16 Dec the five most popular stringy books (hidden, fabric, hardbound hidden, grand, e-elegant) ranked 980, 1153, 1504, 1644, 4285 for an average of 1913.

14 December 2179
15 December 2006
16 December 1913

The midmonth average this time was 2033.

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)

January 2007:     4396
February 2007:    3789
November 2008:    3711
July 2009:        6485  
March 2010:       7521
April 2010:      11983
May 2010:         6884
June 2010:        9731
July 2010:        8461
August 2010:      9606
September 2010:   1060 
October 2010:     1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011      1252
February 2011      223
March 2011         349
April 2011         649
May 2011           676
June 2011         1153
July 2011         1257
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181
October 2011      2563
November 2011     1243
December 2011     2033

marcus · Jan 2, 2012

Maybe it would give an idea of the currently active topics and who some of the active people are if we list the top 25 Loop papers of 2011 citewise:

HEP 203 records found 1 - 25
1.
Diffeomorphisms in group field theories.
Aristide Baratin (Ecole Polytechnique, CPHT & Saclay, SPhT & Orsay, LPT), Florian Girelli (Sydney U.), Daniele Oriti (Potsdam, Max Planck Inst.). Jan 2011. 31 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.0590 [hep-th]
Cited by 40 records

2.
Zakopane lectures on loop gravity.
Carlo Rovelli (Marseille, CPT). Feb 2011. 25 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.3660 [gr-qc]
Cited by 29 records

3.
Bubble divergences: sorting out topology from cell structure.
Valentin Bonzom, Matteo Smerlak. Mar 2011. 19 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.3961 [gr-qc]
Cited by 18 records

4.
Loop Quantum Cosmology: A Status Report.
Abhay Ashtekar (Penn State U.), Parampreet Singh (Louisiana State U.). Aug 2011. 136 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.0893 [gr-qc]
Cited by 17 records

5.
Observational constraints on loop quantum cosmology.
Martin Bojowald (Penn State U.), Gianluca Calcagni (Potsdam, Max Planck Inst.), Shinji Tsujikawa (Tokyo U. of Sci.). Jan 2011. 4 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.5391 [astro-ph.CO]
Cited by 17 records

6.
Perfect discretization of reparametrization invariant path integrals.
Benjamin Bahr (Cambridge U. & Potsdam, Max Planck Inst.), Bianca Dittrich, Sebastian Steinhaus (Potsdam, Max Planck Inst.). Jan 2011. 8 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.4775 [gr-qc]
Cited by 16 records

7.
Spin foam models with finite groups.
Benjamin Bahr, Bianca Dittrich, James P. Ryan. Mar 2011. 47 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.6264 [gr-qc]
Cited by 15 records

8.
Spinor Representation for Loop Quantum Gravity.
Etera R. Livine, Johannes Tambornino. May 2011. 1 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.3385 [gr-qc]
Cited by 13 records

9.
Regge gravity from spinfoams.
Elena Magliaro, Claudio Perini. May 2011. 8 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.0216 [gr-qc]
Cited by 13 records

10.
Status of Horava gravity: A personal perspective.
Matt Visser (Victoria U., Wellington). Mar 2011. 11 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.5587 [hep-th]
Cited by 13 records

11.
Spin foam models and the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for the quantum 4-simplex.
Valentin Bonzom (Perimeter Inst. Theor. Phys.). Jan 2011. 16 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.1615 [gr-qc]
Cited by 13 records

12.
The Matter Bounce Curvaton Scenario.
Yi-Fu Cai (Arizona State U. & Beijing, Inst. High Energy Phys.), Robert Brandenberger (Beijing, Inst. High Energy Phys. & McGill U.), Xinmin Zhang (Beijing, Inst. High Energy Phys. & TPCSF, Beijing). Jan 2011. 15 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.0822 [hep-th]
Cited by 13 records

13.
The Hamiltonian constraint in 3d Riemannian loop quantum gravity.
Valentin Bonzom, Laurent Freidel (Perimeter Inst. Theor. Phys.). Jan 2011. 24 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.3524 [gr-qc]
Cited by 12 records

14.
Cosmological constant in spinfoam cosmology.
Eugenio Bianchi (Marseille, CPT), Thomas Krajewski (Marseille, CPT & Orsay, LPT), Carlo Rovelli (Marseille, CPT), Francesca Vidotto (Marseille, CPT & Pavia U. & INFN, Pavia). Jan 2011. 4 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.4049 [gr-qc]
Cited by 11 records

15.
Coarse graining methods for spin net and spin foam models.
Bianca Dittrich, Frank C. Eckert, Mercedes Martin-Benito (Potsdam, Max Planck Inst.). Sep 2011. 39 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.4927 [gr-qc]
Cited by 10 records

16.
Observational test of inflation in loop quantum cosmology.
Martin Bojowald (Penn State U.), Gianluca Calcagni (Potsdam, Max Planck Inst.), Shinji Tsujikawa (Tokyo U. of Sci.). Jul 2011. 37 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.1540 [gr-qc]
Cited by 10 records

17.
Holomorphic Simplicity Constraints for 4d Spinfoam Models.
Maite Dupuis (Lyon, IPN & Sydney U.), Etera R. Livine (Lyon, IPN). Apr 2011. 27 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.3683 [gr-qc]
Cited by 10 records

18.
Chern-Simons theory, Stokes' Theorem, and the Duflo map.
Hanno Sahlmann (APCTP, Pohang), Thomas Thiemann (Erlangen - Nuremberg U., Theorie III). Jan 2011. 26 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.1690 [gr-qc]
Cited by 10 records

19.
Quantum simplicial geometry in the group field theory formalism: reconsidering the Barrett-Crane model.
Aristide Baratin, Daniele Oriti. Aug 2011. 24 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.1178 [gr-qc]
Cited by 9 records

20.
Tensor models and hierarchy of n-ary algebras.
Naoki Sasakura (Kyoto U., Yukawa Inst., Kyoto). Apr 2011. 13 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.5312 [hep-th]
Cited by 9 records

21.
Cosmological Constant in LQG Vertex Amplitude.
Muxin Han (Marseille, CPT). May 2011. 4 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.2212 [gr-qc]
Cited by 8 records

22.
Euclidean three-point function in loop and perturbative gravity.
Carlo Rovelli, Mingyi Zhang (Marseille, CPT). May 2011. 16 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.0566 [gr-qc]
Cited by 8 records

23.
Canonical quantization of non-commutative holonomies in 2+1 loop quantum gravity.
K. Noui (Tours U., CNRS), A. Perez, D. Pranzetti (Marseille, CPT). May 2011.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.0439 [gr-qc]
Cited by 8 records

24.
Tensor models and 3-ary algebras.
Naoki Sasakura (Kyoto U., Yukawa Inst., Kyoto). Apr 2011. 18 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.1463 [hep-th]
Cited by 8 records

25.
Curvature in spinfoams.
Elena Magliaro, Claudio Perini (Penn State U.). Mar 2011. 6 pp.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.4602 [gr-qc]
Cited by 8 records

marcus · Jan 3, 2012

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
...
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181
October 2011      2563
November 2011     1243
December 2011     2033

=======================
This InSpire search is designed to turn up observational test-related Loop gravity/cosmology papers. It uses categories established by the DESY librarians. The DESY categories used to make the search are gravitational radiation, inflation, power spectrum, cosmic background radiation, primordial---in conjunction with LQG/LQC.

Loop pheno papers (increasingly observational test-related)

Code:

 2000-2003     2004-2007     2008-2011
    6              27           48

2000-2003 inclusive: 6 found
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...Search&sf=&so=d&rm=citation&rg=100&sc=0&of=hb

2004-2007 using the same categories: 27 papers.
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...Search&sf=&so=d&rm=citation&rg=100&sc=0&of=hb

2008-2011: 48 papers
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...Search&sf=&so=d&rm=citation&rg=100&sc=0&of=hb

marcus · Jan 10, 2012

marcus · Jan 12, 2012

The year's first mid-month pop-string salesrank averages. Here is the reading at noon pacific time, for 12 January

12 Jan 2811
13 Jan ...
14 Jan ...
15 Jan ...
16 Jan ...
17 Jan ...
18 Jan ...

At the moment the 5 most popular string books are e-grand, grand, e-hidden, e-elegant, fabric .
The idea is to take top five salesrank averages for several days around the 15th of each month.
For the past 15 months the most popular stringy books have focused on the multiverse notion and have almost exclusively been ones by Hawking or by Greene.

marcus · Jan 13, 2012

marcus · Jan 15, 2012

Except for the kindle electronic version of Elegant Universe, the leading stringy books continue to be those featuring multiverse speculation---only marginally about string/M-theory proper. However the sales of popular stringy multiverse books remain strong. For comparison here are midmonth figures for the past several months:

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
...
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181
October 2011      2563
November 2011     1243
December 2011     2033

marcus · Jan 18, 2012

Bringing forward several of the indices we are tracking. The following gauges the quality/significance of current string research by how much it gets cited by other researchers. Here a paper is counted as recent if it appeared in the previous five years. Current string research is less cited than has been the case in the past, and first-time faculty hiring of string researchers has declined.

Number of recent string papers making the top fifty in the annual Spires HEP topcite list

Code:

year (some omitted for brev.)   2001    2003    2005    2007    2009    2010  
recent work highly cited in year  12       6       2       1       1       0

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)

Annual first-time faculty hires (US and Canada) in HEP theory overall, and string in particular, averaged over 3 year periods

Code:

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

Sources:
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php?id=archive:2011
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php

Pop-string book sales have declined somewhat recently as indicated by their increased average salesrankings.

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
September 2010    1060 
October 2010      1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011      1252
February 2011      223
March 2011         349
April 2011         649
May 2011           676
June 2011         1153
July 2011         1257
August 2011       2068
September 2011    2181
October 2011      2563
November 2011     1243
December 2011     2033
January 2012      3143

To provide a bit of detail, at noon pacific time on 16 Jan the five most popular stringy books (grand, e-elegant, e-hidden, hidden, fabric) ranked 1674, 1821, 2471, 2947, 3727 for an average of 2528. At noon on 17th the stringy topfive were e-elegant, hidden, grand, e-hidden, elegant and the average was 2664. Again at noon pacific time on 18 Jan the five most popular stringy books (grand, e-elegant, elegant, e-hidden, e-grand) ranked 2485+3361+4626+5365+7782 for an average of 4724 The January midmonth figure of 3143 was obtained as a average of the following:

12 Jan 2811
13 Jan 3499
14 Jan 3261
15 Jan 2516
16 Jan 2528
17 Jan 2664
18 Jan 4724

marcus · Jan 26, 2012

Overall reserach trends as of 26 January---year getting off to a good start.

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 (145 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (152 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (203 found)
2012 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (168 annualized from 12 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 (1050 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1128 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1133 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1044 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (927 found)
2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (562 annualized from 40 found)

http://howlonguntil.net/

On the HEP-theory job scene http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php shows the first-time faculty positions which Theoretical Particle Physics Jobs Rumor Mill (JRM) says are open in Usa and Canada.
It shows that 19 institutions have posted theory job openings, and over half of these already show "short lists" of people they are considering. These tend to overlap so that although the total length of all the short lists shown so far is 37, the lists contain only 22 distinct names. (Some names are repeated in two or more lists.)

Last year, according to JRM, out of 11 reported hires, one was a string theorist (hired by Baylor U in Texas). Other types of HEP theory that seem to be doing better include cosmology, lattice gauge theory. You can look for yourself.

marcus · Feb 3, 2012

Last week I checked the Strings 2012 website and read the preliminary (incomplete) list of speakers. Didn't notice any who would be giving "string multiverse" talks. If it plays out that way this will simply carry on the practice since 2008 of excluding "anthropic string landscape" from the annual conference. Widely considered to be pseudoscience, though the subject of several very popular books and television programs for wide audience.

i just now tried to bring up the Strings 2012 pages and found they had moved or for some other reason I couldn't get them. Here are two url that are (temporarily?) not working:
http://wwwth.mppmu.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings.html
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings.html
The conference will be in Munich July 23-28.

AFAICS the major conference of this year as regards relativity and cosmology (including string cosmology, quantum gravity, quantum cosmology...) will be the 13th Marcel Grossmann in Stockholm
July 1-7:
Here is the lineup of invited plenary speakers.
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/invited_speakers.htm
It is a huge conference with many parallel sessions on many topics.
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/parallel_sessions.htm
For instance in the Cosmological Models bunch there is this.
CM4 Quantum Cosmology and Quantum Effects in the Early Universe (chaired by Paulo Moniz)

Here is the entire Quantum Gravity bunch (session chair shown in parens).

QG1 Loop Quantum Gravity, Quantum Geometry, Spin Foams (Jerzy Lewandowski)
QG2 Quantum Gravity Phenomenology (Giovanni Amelino-Camelia)
QG3 Asymptotic Safeness and Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Gravity (Eckehard W. Mielke)
QG4 Loop quantum gravity: cosmology and black holes (Jorge Pullin, Parampreet Singh)
(There was also that workshop in Portugal to keep track of
http://www.fctec.ualg.pt/qisg/speakers.html )

Updating overall research trends as of 3 February (34/366 year)

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 (145 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (152 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (203 found)
2012 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (172 annualized from 16 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 (1050 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1128 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1133 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1044 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (927 found)
2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (678 annualized from 63 found)

http://howlonguntil.net/

The HEP-theory job scene shows little change. http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php lists the first-time faculty positions which Theoretical Particle Physics Jobs Rumor Mill (JRM) says are open in Usa and Canada. It shows that 19 institutions have posted theory job openings, and over half of these already show "short lists" of people they are considering. These tend to overlap so that although the total length of all the short lists shown so far is 38, the lists contain only 22 distinct names. (Some names are repeated in two or more lists.)

marcus · Feb 13, 2012

Since I checked http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php last, nearly all the 19 institutions with HEP Theory job postings are showing short lists of those they're considering (this is for first time faculty hires). The short lists total 51, a large increase from last time. Fewer than that if you count distinct names, because of overlap.

With the aim of getting a midmonth fix on the popular string book market, I'll record some readings at noon Pacific on a few days around the 15th.

Feb 13 3237
Feb 14 ...
Feb 15 ...
Feb 16 ...
Feb 17 ...

The picture there has changed little. At noon 13 Feb the 5 most popular stringy books ( hidden, e-elegant, fabric, grand, e-grand) ranked 2747, 2896, 3418, 3492, 3633 for an average of 3237.

marcus · Feb 15, 2012

A spot check of the HEP theory job situation according to http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php shows 3 offers have been made (first time faculty, Usa and Canada). The three with offers are not string theorists as it happens. It seems that the hiring season is under way.

It looks like 19 institutions have first time faculty openings posted. That number has not changed for several weeks (my guess is that's it for 2012) and those 19 have short lists totaling 51--that number is bound to increase but not by a lot. It now contains 27 distinct names (after eliminating overlap.)Most of the 19 have their short lists on the board.

String book salesrank averages, some readings at noon Pacific on a few days around the 15th.

Feb 13 3237
Feb 14 2866
Feb 15 3553
Feb 16 ...
Feb 17 ...

At noon 15 Feb the 5 most popular stringy books ( hidden, e-elegant, fabric, e-grand, e-hidden) ranked 2643+2742+3721+3999+4662 for an average of 3553

marcus · Feb 17, 2012

Update HEP theory job situation according to http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php (first time faculty positions, Usa and Canada), which reports that 19 institutions have posted openings. Of those, 13 show short lists of people they're considering, totaling 55. The aggregate of short lists now contains 29 distinct names.

Two institutions have already made a total of 3 offers.
=================
Just for comparison, last year 25 institutions had openings posted, and eventually 12 hires were recorded (HEP theory as a whole) of which one was a string theorist.
Some of the 25 institutions withdrew their searches, or else they made offers but their offers were not accepted (the person preferred to go somewhere else).

Roughly speaking, 19 this year is about the same order of magnitude as 25 last year, so as a very crude guess one might expect it to result in about the same number of hires, namely about a dozen. It will be interesting to see what subfields are represented (e.g. cosmology, astroparticle, LHC phenomenology, extensions of standard model, lattice gauge theory, string...)

String book salesrank averages at noon Pacific on a few days around the 15th.

Feb 13 3237
Feb 14 2866
Feb 15 3553
Feb 16 4248
Feb 17 3355

To illustrate, at noon 16 Feb the 5 most popular stringy books (e-elegant, hidden, grand, fabric, e-grand) ranked 3626+3671+4391+4745+4802 for an average of 4248

The February midmonth average is (3237+2866+3553+4248+3355)/5=3452

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
September 2010    1060 
October 2010        1344
November 2010     2220
December 2010     2705
January 2011        1252
February 2011        223
March 2011            349
April 2011              649
May 2011               676
June 2011             1153
July 2011              1257
August 2011          2068
September 2011     2181
October 2011         2563
November 2011     1243
December 2011     2033
January 2012        3143
February 2012       3452

marcus · Mar 9, 2012

To update on the HEP theory job situation as reported by http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php (first time faculty positions, Usa and Canada): 19 institutions have posted openings. Of those, 14 show "short lists" of people they're considering, the average list being 63/14 between 4 and 5 in length. In aggregate, the short lists now contain 32 distinct names.
Two institutions have already made a total of 3 offers.

For comparison, last year 25 institutions had openings posted, and eventually 11 hires were reported (HEP theory as a whole) of which one was a string theorist. Some of the 25 institutions withdrew their searches, or else they made offers but their offers were not accepted (the person preferred to go somewhere else).
A physicist at the U Toronto (Erich Poppitz) charts first time faculty hires in High Energy Physics Theory by year and keeps track of what fraction of these are in string, which fraction are in lattice field theory, and so on.
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
His chart shows 11 HEP theory hires in 2011 with one being string.
2011 was the first year (since the record started in 1994) when "lattice" hires exceeded "string".

Code:

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

Here I have taken 3 years averages to smooth out Poppitz data and get an idea of the trend in annual rate of hiring. This shows the annual rate of overall HEP theory hires (for firsttime faculty positions) and the part of that going to string theorists. It seems remarkable that a mere 10-12 years ago HALF the hep-theory jobs were going to string theorists. Not so today.

A new webpage has been started that reports on postdoc fellowships in a broader category (gen. rel. and quantum cosmology) which includes quantum gravity. So, something to keep an eye on:
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/

As a spot check on the pop-string book market, at Pacific noon today the top string titles (e-elegant, grand, e-grand, e-hidden, fabric) ranked 568, 2824, 3298, 4078, 5207 for an average of 3195. The price of the electronic version of Brian Greene's Elegant has been cut to $3.99 which partly accounts for its sudden jump in sales.

marcus · Mar 13, 2012

An interesting shift in the conference lineup can be seen in the organization of "Group 29". International Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics
This biannual conference has never included Loop QG or its related group field theory (GFT applied to QG) as topics. For instance here's the 2008 Group 27 webpage:
http://theor.jinr.ru/~group27/

This year, by contrast, Group 29 will feature both Loop and GFT.
http://www.nim.nankai.edu.cn/activites/conferences/hy20120820/pdf/1st-Announcement.pdf
The conference will be held in August at the Chern Institute in Tianjin.
==list of parallel sessions==
Parallel Sessions
1) Nonlinear Sciences
2) Quantum Algebras
3) Superintegrable Hamiltonian
4) Applications in Biology
5) Quantum Information and Representation theory
6) Finite Quantum Systems, Combinatorics, Combinatorial Physics, and Symmetries of Quantum Systems
7) Symmetries in String Theory and Supergravity
8) Loop Quantum Gravity
9) Group Field Theory for Quantum Gravity
10) Conformal Field Theories
11) Supersymmetry and Quantum Groups
12) Group Theory in High Energy and Nuclear Physics
==endquote==
The week before the Group 29 conference there will be a QG school in Beijing for PhD students and postdocs interested in getting into LQG research.

This year the April meeting of the APS (American Physical Society) is featuring invited talks on Loop. There will also be contributed talks, but the noteworthy thing is there being two specially invited ones: Eugenio Bianchi will give an overview of the current canonical and spinfoam versions of the full theory and Ivan Agullo will report on joint work with Abhay Ashtekar and William Nelson, in Loop cosmology of the early universe.
The session (Q4) is called Advances in Quantum Gravity. They also include a stringy talk (applications holog. to cond. matter.)
Here are links to abstracts of the two invited Loop talks and the invited String talk:
http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR12/SessionIndex2/?SessionEventID=170158
Here are links for the contributed talks session Quantum Aspects of Gravity (L8):
http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR12/sessionindex2/?SessionEventID=173091
Invited talks are assigned 35 minutes, the others (contributed) are given just 12 minutes. Crowded schedule.

Here are a couple of other 2012 conference websites to check for trends.
13th Marcel Grossmann (Stockholm July 1-7):
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/invited_speakers.htm
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/parallel_sessions.htm
List of scheduled sessions devoted to Quantum Gravity (chair in parens).
QG1 Loop Quantum Gravity, Quantum Geometry, Spin Foams (Jerzy Lewandowski)
QG2 Quantum Gravity Phenomenology (Giovanni Amelino-Camelia)
QG3 Asymptotic Safeness and Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Gravity (Eckehard W. Mielke)
QG4 Loop quantum gravity: cosmology and black holes (Jorge Pullin, Parampreet Singh)

Strings 2012 (Munich July 23-28):
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings.html
Beginning around 2008 Strings organizers have avoided inviting in-conference talks on the "multiverse" topic. Instead, there have been some popular evening talks about that given for the general pubic.

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 (145 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (152 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (203 found)
2012 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (110 annualized from 22 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 (1050 found)
2008 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2008&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1128 found)
2009 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2009&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1133 found)
2010 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2010&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (1044 found)
2011 http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en...2y=2011&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (927 found)
2012 http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb (671 annualized from 134 found)

http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm 13 March = 73/366

Checking the pop-string book market (gauge of wide-audience interest) for midmonth top-five average salesranks:

13 March 3083
14 March ...
15 March ...
16 March ...
17 March ...

At noon Pacific on 13 March the five most popular string books (e-elegant, grand, hidden, e-grand, e-hidden) ranked 1037, 1963, 3217, 3435, 5702, for an average of 3083.

marcus · Mar 15, 2012

A short list of conference websites to watch for changes in standing of various research lines--
American Physical Society (Atlanta April):
_Invited QG talks http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR12/SessionIndex2/?SessionEventID=170158
_Regular QG talks http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR12/SessionIndex2/?SessionEventID=173091
Relativity and Gravitation centennial (Prague June):
http://ae100prg.mff.cuni.cz/program
Marcel Grossmann (Stockholm July):
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/parallel_sessions.htm
Quantum Gravity School (Beijing, first week of August):
TBA
International Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics (Tianjin August):
http://theor.jinr.ru/~group27/
Quantum Integrable Systems and Geometry (Portugal September)
http://www.fctec.ualg.pt/qisg/speakers.htmlChecking the pop-string book market (gauge of wide-audience interest) for midmonth top-five noon salesrank averages:
13 March 3083
14 March 3165
15 March 3203
16 March ...
17 March ...
At noon Pacific on 15 March the five most popular string books (e-elegant, e-grand, grand, hidden, elegant) ranked 1327, 2361,3041, 4327, 4958, for an average of 3203.

http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/

http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm

marcus · Mar 16, 2012

Corrections to above list of conference websites to watch for changes in standing of various research lines--
American Physical Society (Atlanta April):
~Invited QG talks http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR12/SessionIndex2/?SessionEventID=170158
~Regular QG talks http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR12/SessionIndex2/?SessionEventID=173091
Relativity and Gravitation centennial (Prague June):
http://ae100prg.mff.cuni.cz/program
Marcel Grossmann (Stockholm July):
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/parallel_sessions.htm
Quantum Gravity School (Beijing, 12-18 August):
TBA
International Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics (Tianjin 20-26 August):
http://www.nim.nankai.edu.cn/activites/conferences/hy20120820/pdf/1st-Announcement.pdf
Quantum Integrable Systems and Geometry (Portugal September)
http://www.fctec.ualg.pt/qisg/speakers.html

Additional links to check for current activity:
http://relativity.phys.lsu.edu/ilqgs/
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Scientific/Seminars/Quantum_Gravity/
http://pirsa.org/S005
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/

http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=citation&rg=10&sc=0&of=hb
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htmAt noon Pacific on 16 March the five most popular string books (e-elegant, e-grand, grand, hidden, elegant) ranked 1607, 3439, 3731, 5877, 6542, for an average of 4239.

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