PhyMaths

Dr. Raghu Mahajan is coming to the Phymaths podcast. He is a theoretical physicist at ICTS Bengaluru, who has worked on numerous areas, including the Islands approach to black holes. In this episode, we will focus mainly on the interesting problems in string theory. What questions do you have for him? Let me know in the comments.

Today (20th October 2024) completes my 10 years as a university student (studying Physics). I took my first class as a Physics undergraduate on 20th October 2014 at the University of the Punjab, and in these 10 years, so much happened. There have been a lot of ups and downs that I have gone through and I can't possibly explain all the phases that I went through during these years.

I don't know what the future entails for me. I may be able to stay in academia (which is my dream). Alternatively, it may happen (I hope not) that I have to leave academia due to a lack of jobs and/or a higher salary. Regardless of what the future entails, I want to cherish the moments in these 10 years when I was able to appreciate the beauty and power of theoretical physics. It is a euphoric experience when you can see how big and powerful results come out of innocent-looking equations (and sometimes, inequalities) using nothing but maths (and some physical intuition).

On the other hand, I also want to cherish the moments when I couldn't understand things. Those nights, when I was doing the same calculation, again and again, to see where the mistake was, were also very frequent in these 10 years (sometimes it is the typo in the book and your calculation is fine). The moments of confusion, doubt, frustration, and occasionally feeling like an imposter in this field are parts of the journey of studying theoretical physics, as these moments bring a lot of learning with them.

I grew up in an environment where being a theoretical physicist is a very alien concept. Despite this fact, I embarked on this journey due to my own curiosity and efforts, and with help from some other people. These people include my family (especially my late father) and some people that I found during this journey (too many people to name here).

If I am able to stay in academia, let's see what the next 10 years look like (assuming that I will be alive in the next 10 years). Let's keep the tradition alive and keep celebrating the power of theoretical physics in the upcoming years as well. Cheers.

Tomorrow we will get the names of the 2024 Physics Nobel Prize winners. Continuing the tradition of the last two years, I am providing my guesses for this year's winners. Some people on this list are the same as last year, which isn't surprising. This year's list is longer than last year's list. Here we go.

Optics

1. Federico Capasso (Quantum cascade LASER and Meta Optics)
2. Stephen Forrest (Organic electronics)
3. Peter Zoller (Quantum Simulation)
4. Jun Ye (Atomic clocks)
5. Hidetoshi Katori (Magic wavelength for atomic clocks)

Topological systems

1. Michael Berry (Berry's phase)
2. Alexei Kitaev (Anyons)
3. Frank Wilzcek (Anyons)

Quantum computing

1. David Deutsch (Quantum computing)
2. Giles Brassard
3. Charles Bennett
4. Peter Shor

Metamaterials

1. Sajeev John (Photonic crystals)
2. Eli Yablanovich (Photonic crystals)
3. John Pendry (Negative refractive index)

Particle Physics

1. Francis Halzen (cosmic neutrinos)

Theoretical and Observational Cosmological

1. Lyman Page (WMAP project)
2. David Spergel (WMAP project)
3. Alan Guth (Cosmic Inflation)
4. Salva Mukhanov (CMB spectrum)
5. Andrei Linde (Cosmic Inflation)

Important Note: MOND won't win a Nobel prize this year (yeah, screw you, Sabine).

Honorable mentions

1. Claudio Pellegrini (Xray free electron LASERs)
2. Christopher Ge**er (Atomic Force microscopy)
3. Jarillo Herrero (Twisted Bigraphene)
4. Juan Ignacio Cirac (Quantum computing with ion traps)
5. CV Shank (LASER physics)
6. Roger Stolen (LASER physics)

The podcast with Dr. David Wallace is out now. We talk about Everettian interpretation, emergence, and other topics. Go watch!

Phymaths podcast # 46 || Dr. David Wallace *Description*Dr. David Wallace is a philosopher of science and a physicist, with doctorates in physics and philosophy. He works on the foundations of physics...

I had an insightful discussion with Dr. Harold Erbin on string field theory and machine learning. The episode will be released as soon as it is ready.