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As a physicist who used to work on unifying QFT and gravity, no, QFT is not accessible at all, to anyone. General relativity is kind of accessible to a non-phys
by oefrha 5y ago
As a physicist who used to work on unifying QFT and gravity, no, QFT is not accessible at all, to anyone. General relativity is kind of accessible to a non-physics student if they otherwise have a strong math background, which is like 0.001% of the population, optimistically.
- a9h74j 5y agoFun fact: When I was in a highly respected grad school in the 1980s (multiple Nobel Prize winners in the department), the QFT course was presented in such an obscure way, I stopped attending lectures, and I doubt anyone passed. The next year under "QFT" they taught Ashcroft -- i.e. a Solid State Physics course. That way requirements were met.
- oefrha 5y agoI took QFT in college and then grad school in two of the leading institutions in HEP. I can’t say the instruction was very enlightening in either place. Whichever path you take (not sure what you had in the 80s, I’m thinking of Peskin & Schroeder / Schwartz / Weinberg, maybe even supposedly easier textbooks like Nutshell) it’s just a very dense subject. Now, GR or at least the core of it is a lot easier as long as you’re mathematically prepared for differential geometry. Btw, I took particle physics from the Peskin in Peskin & Schroeder when I was an undergrad. Everyone in the class (like four of us by the third week?) was super duper lost by midterm.
- paulpauper 5y agoyeah like this for anything. String theory is easy if you're mathematically prepared by being a field's medalist
- oefrha 5y agoHaving attended many IAS talks, I don’t think string theory is easy for the likes of Ed Witten.
- wiz21c 5y ago0.001% is already about 800_000 people :-)
- sonofaragorn 5y agoAll these topics are so advanced that even for someone trained in one it would take years to become proficient in the other. Source: I'm a Physics PhD