String theory school recommendation: UC Davis, UIUC or other

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ian_dsouza
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I'm currently applying for grad schools in string theory with an interest in AdS/CFT but am open to fundamental formalisms in string theory. I was trying to decide on a few universities to apply to. I am currently considering University of California Davis and University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. I like the research done by the professors (according to the description on their website) but am unsure if these are good schools for string theory. Can someone please comment on this if they know. Also, I'd really appreciate it if someone could recommend universities for string theory that may still have their deadlines open for Fall admissions.
 
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Check out

https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/string-theory-ranking

None of the schools on this list are ones you are considering. Remember it is the researcher(s) at a university that is important not the school per se. That said it does not mean that the schools you are considering do not have a faculty member who is recognized in the field and worth studying under.
 
Thanks. The link seems to be dead. I googled . https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/string-theory-rankings. How does one go about finding if a professor is good/known in his field. At the moment, all I can think of is the h-index on inspire.net. But this depends on their age as well. Older people tend to have higher h-indices. What do you think?
 
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ian_dsouza said:
Thanks. The link seems to be dead. I googled . https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/string-theory-rankings. How does one go about finding if a professor is good/known in his field. At the moment, all I can think of is the h-index on inspire.net. But this depends on their age as well. Older people tend to have higher h-indices. What do you think?

If by dead you mean it is not accessible then see the list below.
#1
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/department-of-physics-186131
Princeton, NJ

#2
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/department-of-physics-166027
Cambridge, MA

#3
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/department-of-physics-243744
Stanford, CA

#4
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/department-of-physics-110635
Berkeley, CA

#5
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/department-of-physics-166683
Cambridge, MA

#6
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/division-of-physics-mathematics--astronomy-110404
Pasadena, CA

#7
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/physics-department-110705
Santa Barbara, CA

#8
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/department-of-physics-144050
Chicago, IL

#9
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/department-of-physics-190415
Ithaca, NY

#10
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/department-of-physics-190150
New York, NY

#11
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/physics-department-170976
Ann Arbor, MI

#11
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/department-of-physics-240444
Madison, WI

#13
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/department-of-physics-130794
New Haven, CT

#14
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/department-of-physics-and-astronomy-110662
Los Angeles, CA

Regarding the H-index there should be a correlation between citations and age after all the older you are the more papers you publish and the likelihood of citations increases. Department are ranked in part by the cumulative citation rate and impact of their specialty. That said if you could determine the age of the researcher finding a high citation rate at a lower age might point to a bright young future leader in the field. On the other hand at what age do you cut off older researchers (whatever that is ) which have more experience and may provide a more credible career guidance. Ranked departments have many good researchers so maybe a first approach is to find the department that does work in the area in which you are interested.
 
I'm surprised that Yale is on the list for string theory. They do very little that's stringy - Walter Goldberger does some formal work in addition to phenomenology, but that's as close as they come. Penn State has, in my view, a much stronger program.
 
Actually in the survey string theory is bundled with elementary particles, and field theory. so yes some may not be real strong in that specific area and Yale has no one identified as doing string theory. The AIP Gradschool Shopper website groups cosmology and string theory together (?) and you get a different group of schools but not ranked and UC Davis and UIU do not come up. I went to the UIU physics website and found only a mention of String theory with no faculty member identified as specializing in it although most did high energy particle. So clearly you will have to dig deeper into each possible candidate school.
 
Penn State has, in my view, a much stronger program.

Reference https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...recommendation-uc-davis-uiuc-or-other.936631/
I had checked Penn State's website. However, it seems they have only one Prof. Radu Roiban working in string theory. Did you find others?

I went to the UIU physics website and found only a mention of String theory with no faculty member identified as specializing in it

Reference https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...recommendation-uc-davis-uiuc-or-other.936631/
I think Thomas Faulkner does some AdS/CFT.
 
ian_dsouza said:
I think Thomas Faulkner does some AdS/CFT.

Yes you are correct I had to look at each profs web page. Just remember it is the researcher who should be your focus.
 
ian_dsouza said:
Did you find others?

Gunaydin, (and maybe Shandera is a cosmologist who is a bit stringy). I'm not holding up Penn State as the world's leader in string theory - just surprised that Yale was ranked higher.

At UIUC, I'd be thinking of Rob Leigh with or before Thomas Faulkner.
 
I don't think ranking even matters at this stage if I'm honest. The person advising you is 10x more important.

Regardless... 2 things: 1) Have you read any of the papers coming out of the departments you mentioned?
2) Where do the people who graduate from those groups end up at?

If not, read some papers in your field, pick 3 you like and see where the author universities are at. It's more important to find people you can work with, but even more important to go some place with people you WANT to work with.
 
You should talk to your professors at your undergrad institution since they probably know or know of many of the professors you would be interested in working for.

Another thing to note is that today when people talk about “string theory” as a subfield, they often group it with other topics in high energy physics that include things conformal field theory, dualities, quantum gravity, etc that are not phenomenological. Other than in F theory, most people who were traditionally associated with string theory are not directly doing research in it anymore, but are using many of the tools to solve other problems.