Related papers: Trouble with Physics?
Lee Smolin's casual accounting of special and general relativity in The Trouble with Physics raises an interesting question: is it possible to develop a legitimate argument concerning string theories starting from a shaky basis? This is…
The parts contributed by the author in recent discussions with several physicists and mathematicians are reviewed, as they have been occasioned by the 2006 book "The Trouble with Physics", of Lee Smolin. Some of the issues addressed are the…
Solutions of Lee Smolin Five Great Problems from his book {\it The Trouble with Physics: the Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next} are described. This solutions is obtained only from the properties of…
Our understanding of supercooled liquids and glasses has lagged significantly behind that of simple liquids and crystalline solids. This is in part due to the many possibly relevant degrees of freedom that are present due to the disorder…
The currently accepted mathematical description of the fundamental constituents and interactions of matter is the Standard Model of particle physics. Its last missing particle, the famous Higgs boson, was observed at the Large Hadron…
Turbulence, the complicated fluid behavior of nonlinear and statistical nature, arises in many physical systems across various disciplines, from tiny laboratory scales to geophysical and astrophysical ones. The notion of turbulence in the…
The reader surely knows what particles physics is about: finding building blocks of nature that appear elementary at a given time and study their interactions - so why in the world this essay? The problem is how to arrive at a fundamental…
The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics, comprised of the unified electro-weak (EW) and Quantum Chromodynamic (QCD) theories, accurately explains almost all experimental results related to the micro-world, and has made a number of…
Effective theories based on experimental data provide powerful probes and tests of underlying theories in elementary particle physics. Examples within and beyond the Standard Model are discussed, including a specific model for supersymmetry…
At the present time, string theory (and its generalizations) remain relatively abstruse subjects to the particle phenomenologist and experimentalist. Yet, striking developments of the last two years offer hope that a fundamental…
The standard model of particle physics is an extremely successful theory of fundamental interactions, but it has many known limitations. It is therefore widely believed to be an effective field theory that describes interactions near the…
The Standard Model is in good shape, apart possibly from g_\mu - 2 and some niggling doubts about the electroweak data. Something like a Higgs boson is required to provide particle masses, but theorists are actively considering…
I discuss some central issues in particle physics which are potentially relevant to cosmology. I first briefly review the present (glorious) experimental status of the Standard Model, emphasizing that it provides a firm foundation both for…
The observational evidence for the recent acceleration of the universe demonstrates that canonical theories of cosmology and particle physics are incomplete---if not incorrect---and that new physics is out there, waiting to be discovered. A…
The past few years have seen dramatic breakthroughs and spectacular and puzzling discoveries in astrophysics and cosmology. In many cases, the new observations can only be explained with the introduction of new fundamental physics. Here we…
Neutrinos, and primarily neutrino oscillations, have undoubtedly been one of the most exciting topics in the field of high-energy physics over the past few years. The existence of neutrino oscillations would require an extension of the…
If the results of the first LHC run are not betraying us, many decades of particle physics are culminating in a complete and consistent theory for all non-gravitational physics: the Standard Model. But despite this monumental achievement…
The observational evidence for the recent acceleration of the universe shows that canonical theories of cosmology and particle physics are incomplete and that new physics is out there, waiting to be discovered. A compelling task for…
The successful operation of the {\em Large Hadron Collider} (LHC) during the past two years allowed to explore particle interaction in a new energy regime. Measurements of important Standard Model processes like the production of high-\pt\…
Criteria for defining errors of a physical theory are formulated. It is shown that the Special Theory of Relativity (STR) has a solid mathematical basis. An enormous amount of experiments carried out in particle physics use beams of…