Sociology of Physics: comment and indices

marcus · Mar 17, 2012

Midmonth top-five string salesrank averages
13 March 3083
14 March 3165
15 March 3203
16 March 4239
17 March 2485
This makes the March figure 3235.

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
March 2012            3235

The electronic version of Kaku's 1994 "parallel universe" book Hyperspace is on sale cut-rate for $2.99.
That was the number one string book in today's top five.
Handy link that lists upcoming conferences:
http://www.anu.edu.au/physics/ACIGA/Conferences.html
This confirms what was said earlier about the next triennial GRG conference being held in Warsaw:
20th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR20)
(Warsaw, Poland, July 8 - 13, 2013)
Here is Lewandowski's BID to have the conference in Warsaw:
http://www.fuw.edu.pl/~lewand/Bid-GR20.pdf
The photos of the Warsaw venue are beautiful, it looks like a lovely venue for the next main international GR conference.

marcus · Mar 25, 2012

The MG13 website has begun to post titles of the invited talks. Thirteen of the titles have been posted so far (in some cases with a bit more description).
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/invited_speakers_details.htm

marcus · Apr 1, 2012

The Strings 2012 conference website has begun posting the titles of the invited plenary talks (all the talks are normally in this category). Something to keep an eye on and check now and then. It's a clue to what the organizers know that active and prominent string researchers are interested in hearing about. The conference will be held in Munich, in late July.
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html

39 invited plenary speakers are listed, not counting usual welcoming talk(s) that open the conference. These 39 include 7 OVERVIEW talks, and also two talks at the end of the conference intended to give a SUMMARY of what was presented and an OUTLOOK on string future by David Gross.
If a talk is not listed as one of these, then it's one of the 30 on some particular topic.

Opening:
J. Schwarz (Caltech)
G. Veneziano (CERN)

Overview talks:
J. Carrasco (Stanford University)
S. Dimopoulos (Stanford University)
A. Karch (University of Washington)
H. Nicolai (MPI Gravitationsphysik, Potsdam)
A. Uranga (Universidad de Madrid)
C. Vafa (Harvard University)
X. Yin (Harvard University)

Conference summary:
H. Ooguri (Caltech/IPMU, Tokyo)

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

One indication of change is that the String community has begun to show more interest in hearing about NON-STRING QUANTUM GEOMETRY as witnessed by the fact that one of the OVERVIEW talks (by Hermann Nicolai) is scheduled to be "Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey"

At this point it is the only overview talk whose title is listed. Indeed it is the only Strings 2012 talk of any sort whose title is listed.
Last September at CERN, Nicolai gave a not-very-satisfactory overview of the alternative QG approaches
http://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=152112
Regarding Loop, it was an honest try I think, but reflecting pre-2007 papers on the whole, or what is worse some more recent critiques which themselves cite mostly out of date stuff.
Well-intentioned but based on an artificially out-dated and biased picture. My expectation is that his overview will have evolved somewhat since then, and if it has, it will be interesting to see in what ways.

What I find hopeful is not that the conference-goers are guaranteed an accurate picture (I don't think they necessarily are) but that they are evidently interested in hearing about current approaches to non-string quantum gravity--interested enough to have the Munich organizers feature an "overview" talk on that subject.

marcus · Apr 2, 2012

The Marcel Grossmann meeting in Stockholm now has 14 talk titles posted (out of 28 total invited speakers) of which around 6 have ABSTRACTS posted already.
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/invited_speakers_details.htm
Jan AMBJORN Lattice gravity: overview and recent progress
Charles BENNETT WMAP

ABSTRACT: The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) produced the first full sky maps of cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization fluctuations extending from full sky to sub-horizon scales. The measurements significantly constrain the physics of the very early universe and directly support the inflation prediction that primordial fluctuations were primarily adiabatic and nearly scale-invariant. The measurements also constitute core support for the standard model of cosmology, with accurate and precise cosmological parameters. WMAP data have reduced the cosmological parameter uncertainty volume by a factor of more than 30,000 compared with pre-WMAP CMB results. The standard model specifies the age of the universe and the curvature of the universe to high accuracy. It also specifies the composition of the universe, including the overall matter density, the baryon density, and the cold dark matter density. When combined with other astronomical measurements, the WMAP measurements constrain the properties of the dark energy and the mass of the neutrino. Future CMB observations (from Planck, balloon-borne, and ground-based experiments) and a host of other cosmological observations should be able to further test, constrain, and extend the standard cosmological model.

Frederik DENEF Gravity and Glass
Petr HORAVA Quantum Gravity with Anisotropic Scaling and the Multicritical Universe
Mario LIVIO The Greatest Scientific Achievements of the Hubble Space Telescope

ABSTRACT: I will review the most important scientific achievements of the Hubble Space Telescope. In this review, I will cover topics ranging from Dark Energy to Extrasolar Planets, and from the age of the universe to Supermassive Black Holes. I will also present results of some of the most recent observations, following the last shuttle servicing mission to Hubble, and I will briefly discuss open questions in astrophysics for the next decade.

Piero MADAU Exploring Dark Matter with Milky Way Substructure
Nazzareno MANDOLESI Planck [Mission] and fundamental physics
Jean-Loup PUGET High Energy Planck Mission

ABSTRACT: The achieved Planck High Frequency Instrument survey performances will be described. The very high sensitivity provided by the 100mK bolometers will allow to test early universe cosmology models (especially inflationary models).Other expected results directly related to fundamental physics questions will also be described. Astrophysical cosmology results from the early Planck Collaboration papers will also be presented.

Harvey REALL Black holes in higher dimensions

ABSTRACT: I shall review what is known about black holes in higher dimensions. I shall discuss the known explicit solutions, results concerning the classification of stationary black holes, and instabilities of rotating black holes in higher dimensions.

Martin REUTER QEG: Towards an Asymptotically Safe Quantum Theory of Gravity
Luciano REZZOLLA Using numerical relativity to explore fundamental physics and astrophysics

ABSTRACT: Recent years have seen a major progress in numerical relativity and the solution of the simplest and yet among the most challenging problems in classical general relativity: that of the evolution of two objects interacting only gravitationally. I will review the results obtained so far when modelling binaries of black holes or of neutron stars and also discuss the impact these studies have in detection of gravitational-waves, in astrophysics, and in our understanding of general relativity.

David SPERGEL The Cosmic Microwave Background and the Hidden Universe

ABSTRACT: Large-scale CMB observations have played an important role in measuring the physical conditions at z=1100 and in establishing a standard cosmological model. In the coming decade, small-scale CMB observations will help us explore the "hidden universe": the dark matter, the dark energy and the "missing" baryons in the intergalactic medium through observations of the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect and through gravitational lensing of the CMB. I will describe results from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope including the first detections of the kSZ effect and the first measurement of CMB lensing. I will also look forward to upcoming data from ACTPOL, which should begin observing in summer 2012, and from a large survey that will be conducted with HyperSuprime Camera, a 1.5 x 1.5 degree camera on the Subaru telescope that will map the same region of the sky.

marcus · Apr 5, 2012

The Marcel Grossmann meeting in Stockholm now has ABSTRACTS posted for 14 out of its 28 invited talks
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/invited_speakers_details.htm
These give an idea of what leading experts in relativity, gravitation, and cosmology are interested hearing about and discussing this year. It's a way to gauge where research is going at present. Another window on the research scene is provided by the statements by the chairs of the special sessions
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm
For example the chairman of one of the two special sessions on Loop quantum gravity posted this about recent progress, status and what he wants the reports in his session to cover:
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#lewandowski
The other Loop session focuses on Loop quantum cosmology. The chairman's statement is here:
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#pullin

====
I made an error in the date at one point in the previous post: by mistake I wrote 13 March instead of 3 April. To correct for that I'll do current Loop and String research rate indices over again of today, 5 April.
Both Loop and String programs seem to have gotten off to a slow start in the first quarter of 2012 but now to be picking up. Obviously three months is a small sample.

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 (126 annualized from 33 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 (694 annualized from 182 found)

http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm as of 5 April = 96/366
Links to check from time to time:
eye on Strings 2012 conf http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
relativist postdoc jobs
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
particle theorist faculty jobs
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Scientific/Seminars/Quantum_Gravity/
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Scientific/Seminars/Colloquium/

marcus · Apr 12, 2012

Time to get some midmonth noon readings on the pop-string book market

12 April 2663
13 April
14 April
15 April
16 April
17 April
18 April

At noon 12 April the five most popular stringy books (grand, e-grand, e-elegant, e-hidden, hardcover-grand) ranked 1680, 1782, 2775, 2844, 4233 for an average of 2663.

marcus · Apr 14, 2012

Last week, Stephen Hawking appeared (as himself) in an episode of The Big Bang sitcom and his multiverse book ("Grand Design") is hotcakes in all three editions: soft, hard, and electronic. Midmonth noon readings on the pop-string book market

12 April 2663
13 April 2923
14 April 2608
15 April
16 April
17 April
18 April

On 14 April the top five string-oriented books (grand, e-grand, hard-grand, e-elegant, hidden) ranked 1462, 2023, 2642, 3126, 3788 for an average of 2608.

Incidental news:
There will be a QG School at Beijing Normal University (BNU) in August.
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php

==quote from announcement==
The BNU International Summer School on Quantum Gravity is intended to provide a pedagogical introduction for graduate students and young post-docs to the main fields closely related to loop quantum gravity.

Topics include: Loop quantum gravity, Loop quantum cosmology, Spin foams, Group field theory, Regge calculus

Lecturers:
Abhay Ashtekar (Penn State Univ, USA)
Benjamin Bahr (Cambridge Univ, UK)
John Barrett (Univ of Nottingham, UK)
Jonathan Engle (Florida Atlantic Univ, USA)
Thomas Krajewski (Univ of Provence & CPT Marseille, France)
Jerzy Lewandowski (Univ of Warsaw, Poland)
Etera Livine (ENS de Lyon, France)
==endquote==
The Beijing QG School is timed to segue into the XXIX International Group Theory Methods in Physics conference ("Groups 29")
http://www.nim.nankai.edu.cn/activites/conferences/hy20120820/pdf/1st-Announcement.pdf
to be held the following week at Chern Institute in nearby Tianjin.
Two of the sessions planned for Groups 29 are:
8) Loop Quantum Gravity 9) Group Field Theory for Quantum Gravity

marcus · Apr 16, 2012

12 April 2663
13 April 2923
14 April 2608
15 April 2406
16 April 2624
17 April
18 April

On 16 April the top five string-oriented books (e-grand, grand, e-elegant, hidden, fabric) ranked 1461+2715+2802+3052+3090 for an average of 2624.

marcus · Apr 18, 2012

Bringing forward several of the indices we are tracking. The following gauges the quality/significance of recent string research by how much it currently gets cited by (mainly other string) researchers. Here a paper is counted as recent if it appeared in the previous five years. Recent string research is less cited now than was the case formerly, say, ten years ago, 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 brevity)      2001    2003    2005    2007    2009    2010  
recent work highly cited that 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)

========
A physicist at the U Toronto (Erich Poppitz) charts first time faculty hires in High Energy Physics Theory by year, in Usa and Canada. He keeps track of what fraction of the hires are in string, which fraction are in other branches of theory: cosmology, extensions of the Standard Model, and so on.
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/Jobs94-08
His chart shows 11 HEP theory hires in 2011 with one being 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 trends in annual rates of hiring. This shows the annual rate of overall HEP theory hires (for firsttime faculty positions) and also 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.

The 2012 hiring season is now in full swing. 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), offers are out to 7 individuals in all, including two offers which have already been accepted.

It's interesting to see what areas of specialization are represented e.g. cosmology, phenomenology, lattice gauge theory,...etc among those who received offers.
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Kaplan,+J
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Slatyer,+T
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Carpenter,+L
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Reece,+M
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Lisanti,+M
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+ea+Fan,+JiJi
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Poland,+D
This sampling of research papers may give a suggestion regarding which *types* of HEP theory the departments doing the hiring want to reinforce, or perhaps one could say in which types they want to "invest" researcher-years of effort. It must have something to do with which lines of theory the physics department committee members think will "pay off".
================

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
March 2012            3235
April 2012              2769

12 April 2663
13 April 2923
14 April 2608
15 April 2406
16 April 2624
17 April 2731
18 April 3426

At noon 18 April the top five string-oriented books (grand, e-grand, fabric, hidden, hard-grand) ranked 1855+1997+2888+5031+5361 for an average of 3426.
That makes the April midmonth average 2769
2663+2923+2608+2406+2624+2731+3426)/7
__________

marcus · Apr 26, 2012

I'm considering how to streamline the recording of midmonth salesrank averages. Perhaps I can save space and effort by only keeping figures for every four months: e.g. March, July, November.
The main emphasis of this thread has become the professional scene (as opposed to the popular book market.) The indicators I'm watching include

first-time faculty jobs (areas of theory where departments seem to want to hire)
focus of major conferences (speakers and titles of invited talks)
citations to current work (gauging the value/relevance of current research)

Public perceptions, as indicated by the changing salesranks of types of books, do not seem so relevant to the sociology within the physics profession, and the gradual shifts of interest and activity which are going on in the research communities.

Code:

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

So I'm going to see how it looks to skip months, and just tabulate salesranks for March July November. I will still CALCULATE averages for the intervening months, in case I want to go back to the old way, or in case some current trend seems interesting, but, tentatively at least, the longterm record will be pruned down.

There has been an unusual circumstance in connection with the Strings 2012 conference
About one month ago around March 31, the organizers added a page to their website designed to list the invited speakers and the titles of their talks.
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
But so far only one talk's title has been posted. The rest are still "TBA".
Normally looking down the list of titles of invited talks is a way of seeing what topics are currently of special interest to the community. Which areas have been especially active---what do the organizers think the conferees especially want to hear about?

For nearly a month now (as of today 26 April) the only talk title listed has been:

Hermann Nicolai---Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey

Is this then what is most on string theorists' minds these days, and what they most want to hear about? :-D
It's a bit strange to see 39 invited speakers' names listed and still after a month all but one of their talks saying "TBA". The conference begins in just a bit under 3 months, on 23 July.

marcus · Apr 27, 2012

marcus · Apr 30, 2012

Update on the triennial Marcel Grossmann meeting (MG13) to be held the first week of July in Stockholm, it now has ABSTRACTS posted for 17 out of its 29 invited talks
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/invited_speakers_details.htm
These give an idea of what leading experts in relativity, gravitation, and cosmology are interested hearing about and discussing this year. It's a way to gauge where research is going at present.
So far I see no multiverse stuff or "something out of nothing" stuff. Maybe you can find some reference if you look closely. String as a whole seems downplayed, considerably less of it at MG than in past years. I gather it's less interesting now to professional cosmologists. Another window on the research scene is provided by the statements by the chairs of the special sessions.
Here's the list of special sessions:
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/parallel_sessions.htm
Here's what the chairfolks have to say:
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm
For example the chairman of one of the two special sessions on Loop quantum gravity posted this about recent progress, status and what he wants the reports in his session to cover:
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#lewandowski
The other Loop session focuses on Loop quantum cosmology. The chairman's statement is here:
http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#pullin

It has now been a full month (as of 30 April) since the organizers of Strings 2012 put online this list designed to show this years 39 invited speakers and the titles of their talks.
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
and throughout that time the list has displayed one talk's title, and only one. The rest have been and are still "TBA".
The sole title listed has been:
Hermann Nicolai---Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey
Normally looking down the list of titles of invited talks at a major conference is a way of seeing what topics are currently of special interest to the community: which areas have been especially active and which the organizers think those attending the conference are most interested in hearing about.
It could be that what is most on string theorists' minds these days, and what they are most concerned to hear about is precisely what Hermann Nicolai has chosen and prepared to discuss.
It's a bit unusual to see 39 invited speakers' names listed and still after a month all but one of their talks saying "TBA". The conference starts 23 July.

marcus · May 8, 2012

For convenience I'll group links to check for current QG-related trends and active topics.
Jobs:
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
Schools and Conferences:
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/invited_speakers_details.htm
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
Colloquia:
http://pirsa.org/12050053

In the Usa+Canada HEP theory 2012 job market, as of 8 May, first-time faculty position offers have been made to 8 people. Gain of one over the past 3 weeks. This gives a rough indication of the research interests on the part those who have received offers:
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Kaplan,+J
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Slatyer,+T
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Carpenter,+L
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Reece,+M
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Lisanti,+M
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+ea+Fan,+JiJi
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Poland,+D
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+ea+Martin,+Adam

Lecturers in the 2012 Beijing QG summer school:
Abhay Ashtekar (Penn State Univ, USA)
Benjamin Bahr (Cambridge Univ, UK)
John Barrett (Univ of Nottingham, UK)
Jonathan Engle (Florida Atlantic Univ, USA)
Thomas Krajewski (Univ of Provence & CPT Marseille, France)
Jerzy Lewandowski (Univ of Warsaw, Poland)
Etera Livine (ENS de Lyon, France)

MG13 (Stockholm July) 22 out of 30 invited speakers have posted abstract summaries of their talks
Strings 2012(Munich July) 1 out of the 43 invited speakers has posted the title of his talk (about QG alternatives to string). This situation has persisted for over 5 weeks. It will be interesting to see what other topics appear in the lineup when more titles are eventually posted.
Some MG13 parallel sessions-- (chairs)
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/parallel_data_grid.pdf
Monday 2 July "QG Phenomenology"--(Amelino-Camelia)
Tuesday 3 July "Loop Quantum Gravity, Quantum Geometry, Spin Foams"-- (Lewandowski)
Thursday 5 July "Asymptotic Safety and Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Gravity"-- (Mielke)
Thursday 5 July "String Theory"-- (Henningson)
Friday 6 July "Loop Quantum Gravity: Cosmology and Black Holes"-- (Pullin, Singh)

marcus · May 9, 2012

Finally as of 9 May two more speakers at Strings 2012 have posted talk titles!
I was beginning to worry. Nicolai posted his title right around 31 March, so for over 5 weeks his was the only talk listed on the schedule.
Now we have 3 out of 43.
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html

==quote from program as of 9 May==
...
M. Gaberdiel Minimal Model Holography
D. Gaiotto tba
C. Gomez tba
D. Gross tba
J. Heckman tba
G. Horowitz tba
N. Iqbal tba
S. Kachru tba
A. Karch Recent Applications of the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence to QCD and Condensed Matter Physics
Z. Komargodski tba
S. Kortner tba
C. Kounnas tba
J. Maldacena tba
H. Nicolai Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey
...
==endquote==

marcus · May 14, 2012

Strings 2012 has now listed titles for 5 out of the 43 invited talks:

M. Gaberdiel Minimal Model Holography

A. Karch* Recent Applications of the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence to QCD and Condensed Matter Physics

H. Nicolai* Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey

A. Strominger Progress in dS/CFT

X. Yin* Higher Spin Holography

Conference starts in about 2 months from now.
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html

*Three of the five speakers here are listed as giving "overview" talks. This is a special category of talks which I guess will be allotted extra time and intended to survey what the organizers think are the main areas of current research activity and/or particular interest to the audience.
========
I'm tryng out the idea of just recording of popular stringy book sales on a once every four months basis. So far about all the record shows is a huge jump in popularity with the appearance of the multiverse books Grand Design and Hidden Universe (by Hawking and by Greene respectively) in September 2010 and January 2011.
Even though it's not for the record I'll take a midmonth average for May as a spot check to see how things are going.

Code:

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

14 May 3925
15 May ...
16 May ...

At noon Pacific on 14 May the top five stringy books (e-grand, e-elegant, grand, e-hidden, hardcover-grand) ranked 2631, 2993, 3307, 4707, 5985, for an average of 3925.

marcus · May 15, 2012

14 May 3925
15 May 4201
16 May ...

At noon Pacific on 15 May the top five stringy books (e-elegant, e-grand, grand, hidden, e-hidden) ranked 2727, 3107, 4501, 5047, 5621, for an average of 4201.

Correction to previous post: Greene's multiverse book is called Hidden Reality, not (as I mistakenly said) Hidden Universe.

marcus · May 16, 2012

Update on jobs:
In the Usa+Canada HEP theory 2012 job market, as of 16 May, first-time faculty position offers have been made to 10 people. The following links give a rough indication of the research interests on the part those who have received offers:
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+ea+Kaplan,+Jared
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Slatyer,+T (DM cosmology)
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Carpenter,+L (phenomenology)
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Reece,+M (phenomenology)
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Lisanti,+M (LHC phenom+DM cosmo)
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+ea+Fan,+JiJi (LHC phenom)
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+Poland,+D
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+ea+Martin,+Adam (LHC phenom)
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+ea+Smith,+Kendrick (cosmology)
http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+ea+Johnson,+Matthew+C (cosmology)

Pop-string salesrank average as of noon Pacific 16th May
e-grand, grand, e-hidden, e-elegant, hidden
(3645+4715+5413+5430+6464)/5 = 5133
14 May 3925
15 May 4201
16 May 5133
May midmonth average: (3925+4201+5133)/3 = 4420

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
July 2009           6485
November 2009         NA
March 2010          7521
July 2010           8461
November 2010       2220
March 2011           349
July 2011           1257
November 2011       1243
March 2012          3235 
[May 2012           4420]
July 2012           ...

Links checked periodically:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (48*366/137=128)
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
Schools and Conferences:
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/invited_speakers_details.htm
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
Colloquia:
http://pirsa.org/12050053

marcus · May 26, 2012

marcus · May 30, 2012

Strings 2012 has now listed titles for 7 out of the 43 invited talks:

T. Dimofte Building blocks in 3d SCFT

M. Gaberdiel Minimal Model Holography

G. Horowitz Why General Relativity is like a High Temperature Superconductor

A. Karch* Recent Applications of the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence to QCD and Condensed Matter Physics

H. Nicolai* Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey

A. Strominger Progress in dS/CFT

X. Yin* Higher Spin Holography

Conference starts in about 7 weeks, on 23 July.
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html

*Three of the five speakers here are listed as giving "overview" talks. This is a special category of talks which I guess will be allotted extra time and intended to survey what the organizers think are the main areas of current research activity and/or particular interest to the audience.

In case anyone's curiosity is piqued by Gary Horowitz' title, it echos this recent paper:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.0519
Optical Conductivity with Holographic Lattices
Gary T. Horowitz, Jorge E. Santos, David Tong
(Submitted on 2 Apr 2012)
We add a gravitational background lattice to the simplest holographic model of matter at finite density and calculate the optical conductivity. With the lattice, the zero frequency delta function found in previous calculations (resulting from translation invariance) is broadened and the DC conductivity is finite. The optical conductivity exhibits a Drude peak with a cross-over to power-law behavior at higher frequencies. Surprisingly, these results bear a strong resemblance to the properties of some of the cuprates.
22 pages, 10 figures

"cuprates" makes one think "high temperature superconductor" (mentioned in conference talk title).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-temperature_superconductivity#Cuprates
Recalling several participants noted that most talks at Strings 2011 had remarkably little to do with strings and branes, this window of the topics to be featured at Strings 2012 so far tends to confirm that impression and continue the trend.

Job situation basically unchanged from two weeks ago as reported 16 May in post #317. First-time faculty offers to 10 HEP theorists, none specialized in string (most in either cosmology or LHC phenomenology.)
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php

marcus · Jun 2, 2012

marcus · Jun 6, 2012

Code:

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

The source used for the preliminary 2012 estimates is http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
===================

Links checked periodically:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb (48*366/137=128)
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
Schools, Conferences, Recorded Talks:
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/invited_speakers_details.htm
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
http://pirsa.org/

marcus · Jun 6, 2012

In the publications listing by year, the Loop figure for 6 June was
141 annualized from 61 found.
6 June = 158/366
The String figure was 723 annualized from 312 found.
===========
As a spot check on the popular book market, at noon on 6 June the five most popular stringy books
(hidden, grand, e-elegant, fabric, e-grand) ranked 2808, 4476, 4651, 4992, 5194 for an average of 4424.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/14545/&tag=pfamazon01-20

marcus · Jun 9, 2012

marcus · Jun 10, 2012

The 2012 research publications rates seem, at least for the time being, to be recovering from a lull in the first part of the year. As of 10 June (162/366) the usual Inspire searches found 64 Loop and 323 String publications. The annualized rates are 145 and 730. It's odd because I'm used to seeing a lull, if there is going to be one, happen in the summer. Perhaps just a fluke.

For the record over the past 6 years, using the same searches, look back to post #321

marcus · Jun 13, 2012

Code:

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

The source used for the preliminary 2012 estimates is http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
===================
In the popular book market, at noon 13 June the top five stringy books (grand, e-grand, hidden, e-hidden, fabric) ranked 1574, 3100, 4578, 5703, 6268, for an average of 4245.
===================

Links checked periodically:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks:
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#lewandowski
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#moniz
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#pullin
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#amelinocamelia
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
http://pirsa.org/

marcus · Jun 15, 2012

At noon on 14 and 15 June the topfive stringy book salesrank averages were 3966 and 3585.
The five most popular were (grand, e-grand, hidden, e-elegant, e-hidden) and (grand, e-hidden, e-grand, hidden, e-elegant) in that order.
For the most part these are multiverse books, only incidentally stringy, the exception being e-elegant, a perennial favorite.
===========
Usa+Canada HEP-theorist first-time faculty job picture unchanged: offers to 12 people (including one doing string)
===========
A major international conference on GR and related topics, held once every 3 years, is the Marcel Grossmann meeting. The last one, MG12 in 2009, had 845 participants. This year MG13 is in Stockholm. There will be four 4-hour sessions directly focused on Loop and several others on related topics (obserational testing of QG, bounce cosmologies,...). Those chairing various sessions are gradually adding more detail to their "thumbnail" summary statements, so we can watch the following links to see research trends.
ssions, on separate days.http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#lewandowski (Tu+Th)
Parallel Session: QG1a and QG1b - Loop Quantum Gravity, Quantum Geometry, Spin Foams

http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#amelinocamelia (M+Tu)
Parallel Session: QG2a and QG2b - Quantum Gravity Phenomenology

http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#mielke (Th)
Parallel Session: QG3 - Asymptotic Safeness and Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Gravity

http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#pullin (Th+F)
Parallel Session: QG4a and QG4b - Loop quantum gravity: cosmology and black holes

http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#novello (F)
Parallel Session: CM3 - Nonsingular Cosmology*

http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#moniz (M)
Parallel Session: CM4 - Quantum Cosmology and Quantum Effects in the Early Universe

*Emphasis on bounce models where expansion is preceded by a contraction.

http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/parallel_data_grid_2012_06_14.pdf

I see there is also a 4-hour session entitled "String Theory" to be chaired by Mans Henningson:
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#henningson (Th)
and a related half-session (2-hours) "Planckian and Trans-Planckian Physics" chaired by Dmitri Galtsov
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#galtsov (M)

marcus · Jun 17, 2012

The popular stringy book market record has been pared down to just 3 midmonth salesrank figures per year (March, July, and November).

Code:

Midmonth averages of string topfive salesranks
(recorded at Pacific noon on several days around the 15th of each month)
...
July 2009           6485
November 2009         NA
March 2010          7521
July 2010           8461
November 2010       2220
March 2011           349
July 2011           1257
November 2011       1243
March 2012          3235 
[June 2012          3733]
July 2012           ...

So this midmonth June reading will disappear as soon as I have the one for July. It's just to see how things are going in the meantime.

2012 research posting rate for Loop, as of 17 June was 147 annualized from 68 found.
For String, it was 749 annualized from 346 found. The date was 169/366.

The Prague "Relativity and Gravitation" is going on this month, starting 25 June:
http://ae100prg.mff.cuni.cz/program

Next month the big (often over 800 participants) triennial Marcel Grossmann meeting is being held at Stockholm.
A link into that site would be e.g.
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#lewandowski
and then navigate from there.

Handy links for keeping tabs on things:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks:
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#lewandowski
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#moniz
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#pullin
http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/par_sessions_chairs_details.htm#amelinocamelia
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
http://pirsa.org/

marcus · Jun 27, 2012

marcus · Jun 29, 2012

A new Stanford/SLAC HEP database called "Inspire" has replaced the former "Spires" utility. Spires provided an annual "topcite" list for each year up through 2010: the fifty or 100 HEP papers which were most highly cited during that year. The new database, Inspire, has continued many of Spires' other services, but so far the annual topcite list for 2011 has not been made available.

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

Code:

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

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

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

The annual Strings conference will be held in Munich this year. So far 369 people are listed as having registered. The conference starts 23 July in about 3 weeks.

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    369 (prelim.)

The program now shows the titles of 8 of the 45 invited speakers' talks:

T. Dimofte Building blocks in 3d SCFT
M. Gaberdiel Minimal Model Holography
G. Horowitz Why General Relativity is like a High Temperature Superconductor
N. Iqbal Friedel oscillations and horizon charge in 1D holographic liquids
A. Karch Recent Applications of the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence to QCD and Condensed Matter Physics
H. Nicolai Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey
A. Strominger Progress in dS/CFT
X. Yin Higher Spin Holography

Faculty hiring for the fall semester now seems about complete, so we can begin to form an impression of the 2012 HEP theory job picture. Up through 2010, the annual rates shown are smoothed by averaging over 3 years intervals.
First time faculty hires (Usa + Canada)

Code:

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

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

marcus · Jul 2, 2012

Update on the annual Strings conference to be held in Munich this year starting 23 July, just 3 weeks from today. So far 372 people are listed as having registered. Of which 92 are from institutions in Germany and 70 are from the Usa.

Perhaps the most interesting demographics are the proportions of students and postdocs.
Of the 372 participants, about HALF are listed in those categories.
103 are listed as Postdoc
80 are listed as "student", "graduate student", or "PhD student".

Unfortunately I don't have figures from past years on the makeup of the conference. Just the overall totals.

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

Code:

Strings 2003 Kyoto     396
Strings 2005 Toronto   415
Strings 2007 Madrid    440
Strings 2009 Rome      450
Strings 2011 Uppsala   265
Strings 2012 Munich    372 (prelim.)

The program posted online is unchanged: so far it shows the titles of only 8 of the 45 scheduled talks.

T. Dimofte Building blocks in 3d SCFT
M. Gaberdiel Minimal Model Holography
G. Horowitz Why General Relativity is like a High Temperature Superconductor
N. Iqbal Friedel oscillations and horizon charge in 1D holographic liquids
A. Karch Recent Applications of the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence to QCD and Condensed Matter Physics
H. Nicolai Alternative approaches to quantum gravity: a brief survey
A. Strominger Progress in dS/CFT
X. Yin Higher Spin HolographyHandy links for keeping track of things:
http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&...=&d2m=&d2y=2012&sf=&so=a&rm=&rg=25&sc=0&of=hb
http://sites.google.com/site/grqcrumourmill/
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/rumor/doku.php
http://www.calendardate.com/todays.htm
Schools, Conference sessions, Recorded Talks:
MG13 (1020 participants) http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/parallel_sessions.htm
QG!A http://ntsrvg9-5.icra.it/mg13/FMPro...tField=order2&-SortOrder=ascend&-Max=50&-Find
QG1B http://ntsrvg9-5.icra.it/mg13/FMPro...tField=order2&-SortOrder=ascend&-Max=50&-Find
QG4A http://ntsrvg9-5.icra.it/mg13/FMPro...tField=order2&-SortOrder=ascend&-Max=50&-Find
QG4B http://ntsrvg9-5.icra.it/mg13/FMPro...tField=order2&-SortOrder=ascend&-Max=50&-Find
http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/talks.html
http://physics.bnu.edu.cn/summerschool/en/index.php
http://pirsa.org/

marcus · Jul 4, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

marcus · Jul 8, 2012

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

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

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

Code:

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

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

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

Code:

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

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

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

marcus · Jul 13, 2012

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

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

Code:

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

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

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

marcus · Jul 17, 2012

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

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

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

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

marcus · Jul 18, 2012

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

Code:

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

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

marcus · Jul 21, 2012

Code:

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

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

marcus · Jul 22, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

Code:

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

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

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

marcus · Jul 25, 2012

Code:

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

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

marcus · Aug 7, 2012

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

Code:

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

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

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

Code:

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

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

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

marcus · Aug 9, 2012

marcus · Sep 1, 2012

marcus · Sep 1, 2012

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

Code:

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

marcus · Sep 6, 2012

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

marcus · Sep 7, 2012

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

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

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

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

2012 External Fellowships:

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

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

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

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

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

marcus · Sep 14, 2012

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

Code:

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

marcus · Sep 16, 2012

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

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

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

Code:

14 September     7886 
15 September       7778 
16 September      5824

The midmonth average comes out 7163

Code:

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

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

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

marcus · Sep 18, 2012

marcus · Sep 28, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

marcus · Sep 29, 2012

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

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

marcus · Oct 11, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Code:

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

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

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

Sociology of Physics: comment and indices

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