The Gravity Research Foundation announced the results of the 2010 competition. Here are the results. At UCSB we discussed the prize-winning paper by Mark van Raamsdonk today. It was a very lively discussion and we thought it was a great paper to read. Mark’s paper provided some very tantalyzing evidence that entanglement seems to play a very important role in building up geometry.
On another note, a paper by Daniel Green, Zohar Komargodski, Nathan Seiberg,
Yuji Tachikawa, and Brian Wecht appeared today. They solve a problem in four dimensional supersymmetric conformal field theories on counting how many marginal deformations there are. As a byproduct, they also solve the problem in 3-d field theories with N=2 Supersymmetry. The paper is beautiful and it is a huge improvement on the work by Leigh and Strassler on the subject many years ago. After reading it I was kicking myself because ‘I could have done it’ (I was interested in the problem and I knew many of the facts. I just didn’t put them together. But if I had thought hard about it I probably could have, although the paper would read rather differently). It’s not surprising that these authors at the Institute for Advanced Study found the solution and that it is written in the particular way that it is written since they have been studying very carefully the superfield formulation of supersymmetric theories in four dimensions. Lubos also commented on the paper.
“I could have done it”
If you could you would.
If you take all the factors into account (including yourself) every outcome is inevitable.
As Alphaville pointed out in their legendary 80′s song “Big in Japan”, “things will happen while they can”.
So there is no point to “punish” yourself. If you think about it, it’s quite relieving:-)
I disagree, Giotis. You are assuming classical determinism here – which is no good because classical determinism doesn’t work in the real world and your incorrect assumption leads you to a flawed conclusion about inevitability.
In reality, there was no “real state” prior to the measurement of the observable A – the author of the first paper with this conclusion. Only probabilities of different outcomes were predictable by science.
And I completely agree with David Berenstein that he could have done it, too. The complex amplitude of his portion of the wave function – for the Berenstein eigenvalue of A – was comparable to the eigenvalue that got ultimately measured.
Yes correct. Quantum Mechanically he could have done it. Nevertheless David again has no responsibility for the final outcome since he didn’t participate in the measurement procedure. You by opening the arxiv on 21/5/2010 you crashed the wavefunction and condemned him. So again David is free of any guilt:-)
How would you write the result of Green et al.? I’m curious.
Hi Anon:
This requires a full post to discuss. I might write a few things to that effect. I have some ideas on things that would be presented different: a lot of the stuff in the appendices would be in the main part of the text for example.
Hi !
Isn’t there only one appendix in that paper?
Yes:
But there are all this references that one has to go chasing in order to get the appendix if one doesn’t know it first hand
How would you write the paper?
So, has string theory delivered on its promises yet?
Guess not. Does the result you mention in your post bring us closer to what string theory has promised us?
Also, did you know that Lubos has begun a singing career?
FTP downloadable directories are bastards. The beginning of this particular song is completely out-of-tune. I should have erased this one – one of the worst ones among those 100 of microphone files
– but it’s still good enough for my faithful German fans. 
So, is it true to say that, in the world of singing, you are a crackpot?
Hey, while we are on the subject, here two other songs.
And the other one. This song was your best performance out of the three.
And let’s not forget Tom and Jerry!
Apologies, but not at all.
Although the selection at YouTube is quite limited and the best pieces are not available over there, one may find some pretty good stuff of mine, too.
A vast majority of 50,000 Russian listeners seem to love my Russian version of Joe of the Bog,
And even if you focus on the recent additions posted by my German music agency, there are some pretty fine pieces such as Boj Jovi’s Always,
Show me Weinberg, Hawking, Gross or someone else who can compete, and then come back. Meanwhile, you may collect all your clones in Austin, Texas and splash them into a toilet where you belong.
Dear Lubos,
Can you please give me your thoughts on this:
http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/archives/002199.html#c032759
where even a professional and respected physicist will no longer associate with you?
Trust me, Lubos, with all the insults and ad hominem attacks you throw at people like Woit, Smolin, Hossenfelder, etc., and your sexist views, etc., you belong in a toilet pooped in by the president of Harvard.
You’re right, Lubos, those two songs you linked to are much better! I actually really enjoyed listening to them! You see, I am generous as well as critical of you!
Mr Distler has already admitted – although deliberately incomprehensibly – that he has been a complete idiot when it came to his criticism of pure spinors, and I was right.
The main reason why he’s ready to team up with anonymous jerks like yourself is his far left-wing politics. Also, I don’t know why you choose to label him with words like “respected” except that you like the nasty lies that he has written before he admitted that he was being an idiot.
Lubos,
In response to your views about Mr. Distler, I rest my case. Also, why don’t you tell him what you think of him and give him a chance to defend himself?
Also, you are crazy if you think Distler admitted he was wrong, much less a “complete idiot”. Just your usual tactics when arguing with people who prove you wrong.
Cheers.
Time to take the bar-fight out gentlemen. This has nothing to do with the post any longer.
Seiberg et al have been rewriting/rephrasing part of the textbook entry on the superfield formalism for the last year or so, and its beautiful to read how they go about it. Truly masterclass!
I expect more results to pour out of their work in the next year or so.
To give Lubos a taste of his own medicine, I suggest you delete all comments from him. He’s too much of a jerk.
Lubos, I listened to your Russian song. The accent is *horrible*.
It’s the right accent. If you’re Russian, I feel too sad to inform you that it is the underdeveloped country of Russia that hasn’t managed to develop an acceptable accent in this very language yet.