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Anyone have insight into how theoretical quantum field theory is developing outside of string theory? Not just high energy physics but also condensed matter phy

Anyone have insight into how theoretical quantum field theory is developing outside of string theory? Not just high energy physics but also condensed matter physics. I'd imagine understanding quantum field theory more deeply leads to more efficient modelling and computation, but that sort of incremental advancement doesn't get much public exposure.

ssivark 8y ago
The breadth of your question makes it difficult for any one person to give a representative answer. I'll give a few examples, biased by my limited background. 1. Amplitudology: https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-discover-geometry-underlying-particle-physics-20130917 https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-discover-geometry-... 2. Conformal bootstrap: https://www.quantamagazine.org/using-the-bootstrap-physicists-uncover-geometry-of-theory-space-20170223 https://www.quantamagazine.org/using-the-bootstrap-physicist... 3. Tensor networks: https://arxiv.org/abs/1306.2164 https://arxiv.org/abs/1306.2164
- danharaj 8y ago
  Well yea, of course. It was an open invitation :) thanks for replying!
- auntienomen 8y ago
  I'd say all three of these are topics related to string theory and worked on by string theorists. I don't think of them as part of string theory exactly, but it's roughly the same set of people doing the research. What does that mean? The two possibilities that occur to me are a) that the age when one could make a career purely as a string theory specialist is ending, and b) that knowing string theory is a competitive advantage for anyone doing formal theory.
  - ssivark 8y ago
    I would say that all three of those topics are being worked on by researchers who have also worked on string theory (among many other people), but string theory is not directly relevant to most of the work in those topics. Especially tensor networks, which is largely driven by condensed matter physics and thus far has limited relation to string theory. Eg: most of the research at the interface between tensor networks / high-energy physics is restricted to a particular tensor network known as MERA, and its association with holographic spacetime [1]. If I might make a sociological observation, people who work on "string theory" have had to do the hard work of understanding quantum field theory in its many contortions, and the "good researchers" among them often have a thorough understanding of a good chunk of ideas in fundamental physics and related math. This also puts them in a position to capitalize on any related research avenues which they consider promising, even if those topics have little to do with string theory as such. So, IMHO (b) definitely carries weight, and I do not have a complete enough picture to comment on (a). [1] PS: I have worked on this topic. Also, FWIW, I wouldn't claim to have a string theory background, but I did learn a little string theory in grad school.

ssivark 8y ago

The breadth of your question makes it difficult for any one person to give a representative answer. I'll give a few examples, biased by my limited background. 1. Amplitudology: https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-discover-geometry-underlying-particle-physics-20130917 https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-discover-geometry-... 2. Conformal bootstrap: https://www.quantamagazine.org/using-the-bootstrap-physicists-uncover-geometry-of-theory-space-20170223 https://www.quantamagazine.org/using-the-bootstrap-physicist... 3. Tensor networks: https://arxiv.org/abs/1306.2164 https://arxiv.org/abs/1306.2164

danharaj 8y ago
Well yea, of course. It was an open invitation :) thanks for replying!
auntienomen 8y ago
I'd say all three of these are topics related to string theory and worked on by string theorists. I don't think of them as part of string theory exactly, but it's roughly the same set of people doing the research. What does that mean? The two possibilities that occur to me are a) that the age when one could make a career purely as a string theory specialist is ending, and b) that knowing string theory is a competitive advantage for anyone doing formal theory.
- ssivark 8y ago
  I would say that all three of those topics are being worked on by researchers who have also worked on string theory (among many other people), but string theory is not directly relevant to most of the work in those topics. Especially tensor networks, which is largely driven by condensed matter physics and thus far has limited relation to string theory. Eg: most of the research at the interface between tensor networks / high-energy physics is restricted to a particular tensor network known as MERA, and its association with holographic spacetime [1]. If I might make a sociological observation, people who work on "string theory" have had to do the hard work of understanding quantum field theory in its many contortions, and the "good researchers" among them often have a thorough understanding of a good chunk of ideas in fundamental physics and related math. This also puts them in a position to capitalize on any related research avenues which they consider promising, even if those topics have little to do with string theory as such. So, IMHO (b) definitely carries weight, and I do not have a complete enough picture to comment on (a). [1] PS: I have worked on this topic. Also, FWIW, I wouldn't claim to have a string theory background, but I did learn a little string theory in grad school.