String Theory State and History

[Pythagorean]

This thread has derailed from the original topic and now is a bit of an argument

I think the arguments and the behavior in this thread do help to answer the question about the current political state of string theory. I don't know if the sociology forum would have been able to produce such a transcendental experience; even if marcus' knowledge would have been there, there likely wouldn't have been the (revealing) conflict that's been produced here in the "beyond" subforum.

I'm tempted to peak at atyy's links, but I should probably get through my next poster session before I start burying myself in a new subject.

 

[unusualname]

This thread has derailed from the original topic and now is a bit of an argument, so I don't feel too guilty asking this. Is there a reasonable size non-popular overview of string theory? Preferably recent and addressed to mathematically mature readers.

There's an historical overview lecture from Ed Witten at the IOP site:

http://www.iop.org/resources/videos/lectures/page_44292.html

basically this is Witten's position:

"I guess it's possible that string theory could be wrong. But if it is in fact wrong, it's amazing that it's been so rich and has survived so many brushes with catastrophe and has linked up with the established physical theories in so many ways, providing so many new insights about them."

Witten is a very smart guy so we have to hope his intuition is as well-tuned, otherwise a whole lot of people might have wasted a whole lot of time.

(More quotes from Witten http://www.icelebz.com/quotes/edward_witten/)

 

[martinbn]

I'm a biologist, so this is probably way too introductory for you, but just in case, I like

David Tong's http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/string.html and John McGreevy's http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-821-string-theory-fall-2008/lecture-notes/ .

Biologist, that's interesting. The level is fine, but the volume is a bit more than what I am looking for. Also these are regular lectures, I would like to see overview articles. Thank for the links, if there is nothing else and my curiosity wins over my natural laziness I will try to read them.

I think the arguments and the behavior in this thread do help to answer the question about the current political state of string theory. I don't know if the sociology forum would have been able to produce such a transcendental experience; even if marcus' knowledge would have been there, there likely wouldn't have been the (revealing) conflict that's been produced here in the "beyond" subforum.

I'm tempted to peak at atyy's links, but I should probably get through my next poster session before I start burying myself in a new subject.

I was just justifying me posting a question which is not on topic.

There's an historical overview lecture from Ed Witten at the IOP site:

http://www.iop.org/resources/videos/lectures/page_44292.html

basically this is Witten's position:



Witten is a very smart guy so we have to hope his intuition is as well-tuned, otherwise a whole lot of people might have wasted a whole lot of time.

(More quotes from Witten http://www.icelebz.com/quotes/edward_witten/)

Thanks, I will take a look.

 

[atyy]

Also these are regular lectures, I would like to see overview articles.

Maybe http://www.blau.itp.unibe.ch/stqg.pdf

 

[martinbn]

Maybe http://www.blau.itp.unibe.ch/stqg.pdf

That's interesting, I'll read it. But this is too general, I know I am picky, sorry.

I am looking for something that is not more than 100 pages, less is better, non-popular in the sense that it doesn't try to avoid mathematics and the result is something imprecise. It should also give a general view of the theory. Something along the lines, what are the fundamental objects, what are the states of the system, how are they modeled mathematically. What is the time evolution of the states. What are the basic problems considered and some examples of such problems solved. If any of that makes sense, of course.

 

[Physics Monkey]

Maybe Joe's Little Book of String?

http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/~joep/JLBS.pdf

 

[mehul ahir]

by knowing everything about universe even at the t=0 what was there every charatctristics up to now can we know what will hapen tomorrow?

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

by knowing everything about universe even at the t=0 what was there every charatctristics up to now can we know what will hapen tomorrow?

If your'e god then yes, but we are mere mortals.