Phymaths podcast

Phymaths podcast

By Hassaan SaleemSciencePhysics
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Phymaths podcast episodes

  • Phymaths podcast # 46 || Dr. David Wallace

    Dr. David Wallace is a philosopher of science and a physicist, with doctorates in physics and philosophy. He works on the foundations of physics, and he is a proponent of the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. His list of works can be found below. In this podcast episode, we discuss the "philosophy of physics" lens to look at different topics in physics.

    Some links
    1) Dr. Wallace's list of works: https://inspirehep.net/authors/984235?ui-citation-summary=true
    2) Support this channel: https://www.patreon.com/phymaths
    3) Become our YouTube member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3nAENP4F5GKrGk9BLNFLvw/join
    4) Link to the high energy physics resources page on my website: https://hassaansaleem.com/graduate-level-theoretical-physics-resources-in-progress/
    Contact Info
    My website: hassaansaleem.com
    Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hassaan.3142/
    Join the Whatsapp channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va9DkjmAzNbs7IlGuv1X
    Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hassaan_PHY
    Email Queries: [email protected]
    Time stamps
    (0:00) Coming Up
    (0:29) Introduction of the guest
    (1:04) Real patterns in physics
    (10:00) Interpretation vs precisification
    (16:48) Are ghost fields real?
    (23:02) Emergence of time
    (25:24) Difficulties in doing interdisciplinary work
    (32:20) Should you do a philosophy PhD?
    (34:50) Did the 2022 Nobel Prize change anything?
    (37:20) Quantum mechanics isn't underdetermined
    (43:15) Dynamics-first vs geometry-first
    (46:25) Born rule in many worlds interpretation
    (1:01:25) Consciousness in a branching universe
    (1:06:38) Quantum Gravity
    (1:10:10) Does gravity need to be quantized?
    (1:16:00) (People's question) Interpreting path integrals
    (1:18:10) (People's question) Philosophical input in physics
    (1:23:47) Earlier physicists reading philosophy
    (1:26:03) (People's question) Generalizing a measurement
    (1:27:30) (People's question) Detecting many worlds?
    (1:31:25) (People's question) Renormalization

    1 hr 36 min
  • Phymaths podcast # 45 || Dr. Fernando Quevedo

    Dr. Fernando Quevedo is a theoretical physicist at the University of Cambridge's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). He works on string theory and cosmology. He was the director of the International Center of Theoretical Physics (ICTP) from 2009 to 2019. We discuss his recent work and his experience as the director of ICTP. See the list of his works at the link below.

    Some links
    1) Dr. Quevedo's works: https://inspirehep.net/authors/992530
    2) Support this channel: https://www.patreon.com/phymaths
    3) Become a YouTube member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3nAENP4F5GKrGk9BLNFLvw/join
    4) Link to the high energy physics resources page on my website: https://hassaansaleem.com/graduate-level-theoretical-physics-resources-in-progress/
    Contact Info
    My website: hassaansaleem.com
    Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hassaan.3142/
    Join the Whatsapp channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va9DkjmAzNbs7IlGuv1X
    Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hassaan_PHY
    Email Queries: [email protected]
    Time stamps
    (0:00) Coming Up
    (0:21) Introduction of the guest
    (0:54) Weinberg as supervisor
    (4:14) Weinberg theory group in the 80s
    (7:05) Different styles of doing physics
    (10:03) History of the deSitter problem
    (23:19) His recent paper on the deSitter problem
    (36:57) DESI results
    (39:28) Anthropic reasoning
    (46:51) Thoughts on the Dark dimension scenario
    (55:59) Experience as the ICTP director
    (1:00:20) Gathering funding for ICTP programs
    (1:04:00) Canceling Elsevier subscription for ICTP
    (1:05:33) ICTP during the pandemic
    (1:08:04) (People's question) Explaining 4 dimensions
    (1:14:02) (People's question) Standard Model notes
    (1:14:41) (People's question) Bad and Good String Theory Criticism
    (1:22:11) (People's question) Advice to undergrads
    (1:26:20) (People's question) His favorite course
    (1:27:12) (People's question) Experience with Jackson electrodynamics
    (1:29:25) (People's question) Taking graduate students
    (1:32:10) (People's question) Cosmology and particle physicists
    (1:41:14) (People's question) Writing a book on supersymmetry
    (1:46:10) Doing all the steps vs. leaving to the reader
    (1:48:22) Goodbye

    1 hr 49 min
  • Phymaths podcast # 44 || Dr. Suvrat Raju

    Dr. Suvrat Raju is a theoretical physicist at ICTS, Bangalore. He mainly works on black hole information and AdS/CFT (bulk/boundary correspondence). He is a proponent of the "holography of information" proposal, which says that information about black holes is always available outside. His list of works can be found at the link below.

    Some links
    1) Dr. Raju's works: https://inspirehep.net/authors/1053745
    2) Support this channel: https://www.patreon.com/phymaths
    3) Become our YouTube channel member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3nAENP4F5GKrGk9BLNFLvw/join
    4) Link to the high energy physics resources page on my website: https://hassaansaleem.com/graduate-level-theoretical-physics-resources-in-progress/
    Contact Info
    My website: hassaansaleem.com
    Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hassaan.3142/
    Join the Whatsapp channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va9DkjmAzNbs7IlGuv1X
    Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hassaan_PHY
    Email Queries: [email protected]
    Time stamps
    (0:00) Coming Up
    (0:11) Intro
    (0:26) Introduction of the guest
    (0:51) His active projects
    (3:42) Experience with Shiraz Minwalla
    (4:39) Transition to working on black holes
    (5:41) Holography of information: What took so long?
    (9:10) Contradiction with Mathur's theorem?
    (12:50) Correspondence with Samir Mathur
    (13:56) Split property failure
    (14:24) Double copy
    (16:00) Islands approach
    (20:20) Problems with large AdS black holes
    (24:14) State-dependent observables
    (24:58) Problems with the Fuzzball program
    (30:26) Interpreting the horizonless solutions
    (32:24) (People's question) String theory criticism
    (37:24) (People's question) Maths for Physics
    (38:08) (People's question) Work ethic
    (39:57) (People's question) Doing activism
    (42:41) (People's question) Hobbies
    (43:09) (People's question) Reading Phenomenology
    (43:56) (People's question) Working with Kyriakos Papadodimas
    (45:00) (People's question) ICTS/TIFR culture
    (47:20) (People's question) Talent vs Hardwork
    (49:16) (People's question) HRI experience
    (52:44) (People's question) Pi from string theory
    (54:54) Goodbye

    56 min
  • Phymaths podcast # 43 || Dr. Jay Cummings

    Dr. Jay Cummings is an assistant professor of mathematics at California State University, Sacramento. He is the last student of Ron Graham and the author of the LongformMath series, which includes two books on Real Analysis and Proofs. A list of his publications and the link to his books can be found below.

    Some links
    1) Jay Cummings' website: https://longformmath.com/
    2) Real Analysis book link: https://www.amazon.com/Real-Analysis-Long-Form-Mathematics-Textbook/dp/1077254547
    3) Proofs book link: https://www.amazon.com/Proofs-Long-Form-Mathematics-Textbook-Math/dp/B08T8JCVF1
    4) List of his publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jFz_5p0AAAAJ&hl=en
    5) Link to the high energy physics resources page on my website: https://hassaansaleem.com/graduate-level-theoretical-physics-resources-in-progress/
    Contact Info
    My website: hassaansaleem.com
    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/phymaths
    Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hassaan.3142/
    Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hassaan_PHY
    Time stamps
    (0:00) Coming Up
    (0:35) Intro
    (0:50) Introduction of the guest
    (1:28) Ron Graham as an advisor
    (6:32) Solving problems in Ph.D.
    (8:24) Learning new areas
    (11:00) Probabilistic method
    (13:07) Why the name "Long Form Math"?
    (15:59) Motivation behind definitions
    (17:47) Including memes in textbooks
    (21:13) Did he have to skip something?
    (24:38) Any favorite proofs book?
    (25:48) Complex and functional analysis books?
    (26:37) Aspects of writing a textbook
    (34:32) His upcoming book (History of Maths)
    (46:52) Becoming a top mathematician is getting difficult
    (50:26) Favourite unsolved problems
    (57:26) Favourite unsolved problem in graph theory
    (1:01:59) Base-dependent theorems
    (1:09:08) Popularizing mathematics
    (1:17:26) Papers Inspired by Tweets
    (1:26:00) People's questions
    (1:44:30) His book is coming in December (probably)

    1 hr 50 min
  • Phymaths podcast # 42 || Dr. Joseph Conlon

    Dr. Joseph Conlon is a theoretical physicist at the University of Oxford. He works on string compactifications, string cosmology, string phenomenology, and related areas. He also wrote the book, "Why string theory?". The list of his works can be found at the following link.

    Some links
    1) Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/phymaths
    2) Dr. Conlon's works: https://inspirehep.net/authors/1024860
    3) "Why String Theory" book: https://www.amazon.com/Why-String-Theory-Joseph-Conlon/dp/1482242478
    4) His second book: https://www.amazon.com/Origins-Cosmos-Verse-Joseph-Conlon/dp/0861549112?ref_=ast_author_dp
    5) Link to the high energy physics resources page on my website: https://hassaansaleem.com/graduate-level-theoretical-physics-resources-in-progress/
    Contact Info
    My website: hassaansaleem.com
    Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hassaan.3142/
    Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hassaan_PHY

    Time stamps
    (0:00) Coming Up
    (0:43) Intro
    (0:58) Introduction of the guest
    (1:43) Why two undergrads
    (3:16) His interest in physics
    (4:40) His thoughts on DESI
    (7:41) Getting deSitter in string theory
    (10:19) Moduli stabilization (Equivalence principle)
    (12:38) deSitter being an excited state
    (13:39) AdS being the true vacuum
    (14:33) deSitter swampland conjecture
    (15:52) Non-supersymmetric approaches
    (17:04) Holographic moduli stabilization
    (19:36) M theory compactifications and G2 manifolds
    (21:13) Strings and bouncing cosmologies
    (23:04) That famous page and perception of string theory
    (26:23) What led to writing that book?
    (27:36) Countering the misinformation about strings
    (31:28) Criticisms of string theory
    (37:36) His upcoming book
    (39:16) Managing time
    (40:19) Making complex ideas simple
    (42:21) Availability of his upcoming book
    (43:13) (People's question) String and real world
    (45:54) (People's question) Betting on cosmic strings
    (47:24) (People's question) Tilt towards formal theory
    (50:14) Third superstring revolution?
    (52:53) (People's question) Inflation and strings
    (54:00) (People's question) Developments to keep track of
    (57:53) Goodbye

    59 min
  • Phymaths podcast # 41 || Dr. Samir Mathur

    Dr. Samir Mathur is a well-known theoretical physicist at Ohio State University. He has worked for a long time on the information paradox and he is known for (among other things) his fuzzball proposal. The list of his works can be found below.

    Some links
    1) Samir Mathur's works: https://inspirehep.net/authors/998393
    2) His famous "small corrections theorem" paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/0909.1038
    3) His review on fuzzballs: https://arxiv.org/abs/0810.4525
    3) Link to the high energy physics resources page on my website: https://hassaansaleem.com/graduate-level-theoretical-physics-resources-in-progress/
    Contact Info
    My website: hassaansaleem.com
    Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hassaan.3142/
    Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hassaan_PHY
    Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/phymaths3142
    Email Queries: [email protected]
    Time stamps
    (0:00) Coming Up
    (0:33) Intro
    (0:48) Introduction of the guest
    (1:16) His active projects
    (6:27) His thoughts on DESI results
    (7:58) Small corrections theorem: What took so long?
    (12:58) His email exchange with Ed Witten
    (15:46) GR community and string theory
    (18:00) Fuzzball: The motivation
    (29:10) Phase transition (horizon to no horizon)
    (30:28) Black hole vs fuzzball complementarity
    (45:09) Suvrat Raju's paper on split property
    (49:53) Effective small corrections theorem
    (52:46) Using AdS/CFT and Islands for black holes
    (1:04:50) His counterexample for 2D gravity
    (1:08:24) Changing the Island at every step?
    (1:15:33) Page curve in fuzzball paradigm
    (1:17:00) Why subadditivity isn't internalized?
    (1:24:40) What if horizon comes up in string theory?
    (1:26:16) Problems in high energy physics community
    (1:36:21) (People's question) Suvrat's holography proposal
    (1:41:32) (People's question) His work with Mukhi and Sen
    (1:44:43) (People's question) New predictions of fuzzball?
    (1:47:40) (People's question) Fuzzball on white holes
    (1:49:08) (People's question) Quantizing D Branes
    (1:50:38) Learning String Field Theory
    (1:54:33) (People's question) Accepting new Ph.D. students
    (2:00:58) Dealing with confusion as a researcher
    (2:08:30) Good Bye

    2 hr 10 min
  • Phymaths podcast # 40 || Dr. John Donoghue

    Dr. John Donoghue is a theoretical physicist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is well known for his work on effective field theories of gravity. He has also co-authored two books (links given below).

    Some links
    1) Dynamics of the standard model: https://www.amazon.com/Dynamics-Standard-Cambridge-Monographs-Cosmology/dp/0521476526
    2) A prelude to Quantum Field Theory: https://www.amazon.com/Prelude-Quantum-Field-Theory/dp/0691223483
    3) List of Dr. Donoghue's works: https://inspirehep.net/authors/1011544
    4) Link to the high energy physics resources page on my website: https://hassaansaleem.com/graduate-level-theoretical-physics-resources-in-progress/
    Contact Info
    My website: hassaansaleem.com
    Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hassaan.3142/
    Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hassaan_PHY
    Time stamps
    (0:00) Coming Up
    (0:20) Intro
    (0:36) Introduction of the guest
    (0:56) His 'prelude to QFT' book
    (6:06) What made him do the 1994 calculation?
    (10:34) Influence of the 'thooft-Veltman paper
    (14:15) Using the (+ - - -) metric
    (15:55) His work on avoiding singularity and its inconclusiveness
    (20:09) Is the BGV theorem valid in modified gravity?
    (21:46) Why people are still working on asymptotic safety?
    (27:49) Is the fixed point a CFT?
    (29:01) Won't the field theory description break down?
    (31:12) (People's question) Using machine learning in QFT
    (33:16) (People's question) Measuring the corrections to Einstein's equation
    (38:17) (People's question) Why quantize gravity?
    (42:28) (People's question) Gravity without spacetime
    (43:36) (People's question) Tackling hard problems in Ph.D.
    (49:31) (People's question) How to select Ph.D. students?
    (52:31) (People's question) What problems he wants solved?
    (55:26) (People's question) Using holography for EFTs
    (56:45) (People's question) Nonuniversality of lightcones
    (59:23) (People's question) Probing black holes using EFTs
    (1:01:37) Goodbye

    1 hr 3 min
  • Phymaths podcast # 39 || Dr. Antonio Padilla

    Dr. Antonio Padilla is a cosmologist at the University of Nottingham, working on the problems of cosmology, black holes, modified gravity, and string theory. He is well known for his videos on Numberphile and sixty symbols (links given below). He authored the book, "Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them" (link below).

    Some links
    1) His book: https://www.amazon.com/Fantastic-Numbers-Where-Find-Them/dp/0374600562
    2) His videos on Numberphile: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt5AfwLFPxWL8KAJKO3WfHhJcWrJfjgfU&si=klpd8E9cNC8Nvb5M
    3) His videos on sixty symbols: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcUY9vudNKBPJmX64Jay51cdZTKMz4ACs&si=70ng6G21LrWdGS9n
    Contact Info
    My website: hassaansaleem.com
    Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hassaan.3142/
    Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hassaan_PHY
    Time stamps
    (0:00) Coming Up
    (0:20) Intro
    (0:36) Introduction of the guest
    (1:11) His interest in cosmology
    (2:50) His interest in numbers
    (3:10) His book (Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them)
    (4:10) His interest in numbers (continued)
    (7:37) Procedure to make a numberphile video
    (10:41) His most favorite video ever
    (11:50) Shortest papers ever
    (13:27) Lessons from doing popular science
    (16:09) Countering misinformation on string theory
    (26:59) Academic jobs for young people
    (27:55) Shamit Kachru leaving the field
    (31:54) Does string theory have de Sitter spacetime?
    (38:33) His views on DESI results
    (43:00) His views on anthropic reasoning
    (46:20) Modified gravity and MOND
    (51:20) Undergrads in the Publications race
    (55:00) A breakthrough in maths required?
    (56:51) Grad school with bad grades
    (58:36) His work on integration techniques
    (1:03:07) Two titles for his book
    (1:04:05) Goodbye

    1 hr 5 min
  • Phymaths podcast # 38 || Dr. Cliff Burgess

    Dr. Cliff Burgess is a theoretical physicist at McMaster University and Perimeter Institute. He works on string theory, quantum gravity, cosmology, dark matter, and occasionally condensed matter physics. He did his Ph.D. from UT Austin, Texas, in 1985 under the supervision of Dr. Steven Weinberg. The list of his works can be seen below.

    Some links
    1) Dr. Burgess' Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/cburgescliff
    2) Dr. Burgess' list of works: https://inspirehep.net/authors/1014953?ui-citation-summary=true

    Contact Info
    My website: hassaansaleem.com
    Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hassaan.3142/
    Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hassaan_PHY
    Time stamps
    (0:00) Coming Up
    (0:16) Intro
    (0:34) Introduction of the guest
    (1:30) Weinberg as an advisor
    (6:15) No papers with Weinberg
    (8:06) Weinberg's notation and conventions
    (12:03) How he chose his Ph.D. topic
    (14:42) What you don't know and what nobody knows
    (19:15) Enthusiasm for Effective Field Theory (EFT)
    (23:31) John Donoghue's work
    (25:50) Getting deSitter in string theory
    (31:53) On modifying gravity
    (36:09) Inflation models
    (43:36) His work on quantum Hall effect
    (51:38) His experience of writing textbooks
    (56:17) Favorite interpretation of quantum mechanics?
    (58:04) People's questions
    (1:08:50) His reaction to the accelerating universe
    (1:14:22) People's questions (continued)

    1 hr 19 min
  • Phymaths podcast # 37 || Dr. Nirmalya Kajuri

    Dr. Nirmalya Kajuri is a theoretical physicist at IIT Mandi, India. He got his Ph.D. from IMSc, Chennai. He works on holography and related areas and he is quite well-known for popularizing science using social media platforms.

    Some links
    1) Dr. Kajuri's Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/Kaju_Nut
    2) Dr. Kajuri's list of works: https://inspirehep.net/authors/1254767?ui-citation-summary=true

    Contact Info
    My website: hassaansaleem.com
    Follow on Instagram: @hassaan.3142
    Follow on Twitter: @Hassaan_PHY
    Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/phymaths3142
    Email Queries: [email protected]
    Time stamps
    (0:00:00) Coming Up
    (0:00:19) Intro
    (0:00:33) Introduction of guest
    (0:01:06) Transitioning from LQG to String Theory
    (0:11:48) Lessons to learn from Dr. Kajuri's Ph.D.
    (0:15:45) Background required to do research
    (0:21:38) Asking for help in your Ph.D.
    (0:23:45) String theory's background independence
    (0:26:00) Media for popularizing string theory
    (0:32:14) Effects on funding of string theory
    (0:33:58) Example of superconducting supercollider
    (0:38:57) How to popularize abstract topics?
    (0:43:28) How to combat pseudoscience?
    (0:52:51) How to know the real experts?
    (0:56:04) The phenomenon of crackpots
    (0:58:44) Does fame and money change scientists?
    (1:00:17) Intelligence required for being a physicist
    (1:04:04) Making discoveries before 30?
    (1:07:18) Indian schools
    (1:13:31) Considerations before doing a Ph.D.
    (1:16:17) Research in Indian Institutes
    (1:23:04) His favorite equation and books
    (1:24:40) On establishing more IISERs
    (1:25:42) People spreading pseudoscience
    (1:26:43) Problem of research metrics

    1 hr 30 min

About Phymaths podcast

From the publisher's feed

A podcast to discuss the ideas that are at the forefront of fundamental theoretical physics and mathematics.