Blog Profile / Shores of the Dirac Sea
| URL : | http://diracseashore.wordpress.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Academics / Physics | |
| Posts on Regator: | 188 | |
| Posts / Week: | 0.8 | |
| Archived Since: | December 19, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
Woof Woof
It’s very nice to discover humor in a paper that I thought I knew all too well. Above is a a Feynman diagram taken from said paper. Although not as cute as a penguin, it might compete with other dog renditions in popular culture. Filed under: humor, Physics
Happy 3.1415926535… day
Just to have fun, here is one of my favorite formulas involving pi: Filed under: Uncategorized
Unstable Universes
It’s a fine day for the Universe to die, and to be new again! Well, maybe not, but the Internet is abuzz with a reincarnation of the unstable universe story. (You can also see it here, or here, the whole thing is trending in Google). In other works, this is known as tunneling between vacua. [...]
Bad science reporting versus good science reporting
Today I was greeted with the following line Quantum Gas Temperature Drops Below Absolute Zero This is the way the news about a quantum system that is effectively at negative temperature was reported in Wired. The thing is, negative temperatures are hotter than any finite positive temperature. One can also check this fact in the [...]
If some of my students where writing problems
It would be nice if there was some text written to explain the mathematical formula above. That is one of my main complaint to students whose homework solutions are a bunch of math without text or explanation (other than the self-explanatory algebra and the presumed conventions for symbols). Filed under: Academia, humor, Physics, relativity
Golden ratio
Steven Strogatz has a nice article about the golden mean in the New York Times. It’s worth a read. I learned a few more factoids about the golden mean.My favorite representation of the golden mean is in term of its continuous fraction representation. One can use this representation to show that is the most [...]
Art from math
Occasionally my computer produces plots that can be fun to just post in the absence of context. Then they become artistic. Here is a sample from one that I generated today while trying to understand something related to my current research. This graph will never be published. At least not in one of my [...]
Higgs-like particle observed at LHC
Without going into details: at 4.9 sigma confidence level (CMS) at 5 sigma confidence level (ATLAS). Filed under: Uncategorized
Fine art photography exhibit
A good friend of mine, Sol Hill, is opening an exhibition of fine art photography tomorrow. Here is a sample from my e-mail inbox. The exhibition is called: Token Feminine and other Urban Noise. You can find the information here. http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=b401f0be17311fdc3fd4f99d2&id=ca4f70f863&e=b32bc7bf83 Filed under: Uncategorized
Memorial weekend Biden’s speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLSjrS0bb08
In my inbox
Sometimes life’s just too funny. I get stuff like this in my inbox from a site that stores old tests: Why use a study guide when you can have the old exam? Spend more time partying and less time studying. Needless to say, when the site advertises things similar to “Why study the night before [...]
All is well that ends well
Last week was a week of endings. First, the program I was organizing in the KITP ended. However, it is not all over: I’m in the coda, writing the exit report. In my opinion the program was successful, we had a lot of interactions and very interesting talks. And we will see what happens with [...]
Currently at the KITP
Right now I’m in the midst of a program I helped to organize (and I’m still organizing) at the KITP. The program deals with the question of how to use numerical methods from lattice and gravity to make inroads into interesting (usually very hard) questions about quantum field theory (and quantum gravity) and the dynamics [...]
The biological imperative
Just so you know, I also have felt the biological urge to reproduce. What you see above is myself holding the newest addition to my family. It’s a boy! In the language of physics this is definitely a phase transition in my lifestyle. And in spite of the warnings about how much work raising children [...]
Something to read
Not too long ago we discussed this paper on one of our informal seminars. The paper is called “The eighteen arbitrary parameters of the standard model in your everyday life” by R. N. Cahn, and the paper dates back to 1996. It is an RMP colloquia paper. I think it still reads great and it [...]
What’s in a picture
Today’s guessing game is: What is this a picture of? Filed under: Optics, puzzle
Happy new year!
Well, I guess it is 2012. 2011 just went by in a blink. I expect 2012 should be the year for the discovery of the Hicks Bison. That was how it was pronounced by someone at a New Years eve party that I attended. On another note, the weather is good where I’m at, the [...]
Blackboard humor
To celebrate the near end of the quarter I thought I would publish a photo of a blackboard near my office captured a few days ago. The bottom equation proves that it comes from a bona fide physics department blackboard, although to me it seems that there might be a factor of missing. [...]
The areas of expertise I didn’t know I was an expert on.
I guess I’m easing my way back to writing blog posts. Of course, I could bore you to death with the list of things I was actually doing instead of writing here, but that will really have to wait for another day. Today, I will just give you some information on some of the recent [...]
Faster than light neutrino claim
Well, the press is all fired up about a claim of faster than light neutrinos. The claim from the OPERA experiment can be found in this paper. The paper was released on September 22nd and it has already gotten 20 blog links. Not bad for a new claim. Considering that the news organizations are happily [...]