2022-06-08 终于走出小区——这是自三月中旬以来本宅第三次出小区,第一次“跨区”
2020:今年最困难
2022撇了撇嘴
春天:你们错过了我
夏天摇了摇头
秋天的黄叶,没什么可说
飞落在那里,只叹息一声
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2022-06-05 高端的食材,往往采用最朴素的烹饪方式;越是弥足珍贵的美味,外表看上去,往往越是平常无奇。
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群众熟知的关中肉夹馍都是卤肉,“重口”,白肉不过是片姜葱段的近乎原香,若刀功过硬,切得薄如蝉翼,档次立刻高大。两者之差异,正如爱因斯坦所说,在乎构造性(constructive)理论和原理性(principle)理论之区别也。前者譬如洛伦兹相对论,后者如庞加莱-爱因斯坦相对论(和庞加莱不同的是,爱因斯坦还受到了热力学形式体系的启发)。
2022-06-04 spent some time on reading and found the following. holy... remember the quote of n.bohr? “your theory is crazy, but not crazy enough to be true” cry for it, wait, no, you are gonna laugh your ass off
“Vafa thinks that the fact that we do not see aliens around could be the first proof of the existence of brane worlds: all advanced aliens would have emigrated to better parallel universes”
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J. Polchinski’s autobiography “Memories of a Theoretical Physicist”has finally been published by mit, open-access & freely available (see attched link downstairs). I already downloaded a few chaps for later reading.
Just a remainder. Much of this version was in arXiv 1708.09093, supplemented with more material, but i don't have time to check. I did read some chaps of the aeXiv version, but later on i was busy w/ grad's project, and eventually forgot about it. i guess some domestic publishers would be interested in translating/publishing it.
https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5336/Memories-of-a-Theoretical-PhysicistA-Journey
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Excerpt from E. Witten's “biographical memoirs (J.G.P.)”: In Joe’s last year, when illness made it difficult to continue his work in theoretical physics, he wrote an insightful memoir of his life and scientific career [1] (which I will quote from at many points in what follows). His reflections on the process of learning to do theoretical physics, and on the specific scientific problems that he grappled with, make interesting reading, either for newcomers to the field looking for inspiration or for colleagues who lived through the period and knew Joe and his work. In his memoir, Joe describes a long battle with shyness, through his youth and into early adulthood. But he developed into a highly interactive scientist with many collaborators on multiple projects and was extremely well-liked by his colleagues.
2022-06-02 “Remember, Red, hope is good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies. ”
Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption
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202206-02 第三次沉思和第二次解放。此时好像有小区在燃放鞭炮,不知是庆61还是庆解封……
还是叫三思集好?倒着看别有一番风味,尤其是最后一篇,题目就叫纽约到奥斯丁,再返回,冥冥之中似有某种安排
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温老自1995年起在纽约书评(new york review of books) 写作,他的几部随笔集中很多作品都源出那里,我印象很深的比如大科学危机、量子力学的困惑等。本世纪初国内还能看到纽约书评,忘了从哪年开始就没法看了(实际上纽约书评在英语言文学上享有声誉),这种愚蠢的隔阂令人叹息—在无法产生深刻的思想的同时,又拒绝了对它(们)的吸收。
2022-05-30 “长恨此身非我有,何时忘却营营?夜阑风静縠纹平。小舟从此逝, 江海寄余生。”
I long regret I am not master of my own,
When can I ignore the hums of up and down?
In the still night the soft winds quiver on the ripples of the river.
From now on, I would vanish with my little boat,
For the rest of my life, on the sea I would float.
[English version by 许渊冲,宋词英译]
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2022-05-22 Zierler: What did it feel like to win the Fields Medal as a physicist?
Witten: Well, it was a thrill, of course. It felt a little funny because I knew that obviously I was a non-standard selection. And I don’t like controversy about science, and I felt that I might have been a controversial choice in the math world. But on the other hand, I hadn’t selected myself, so I didn’t feel any controversy was my fault…
What’s a little funny about my relation to the math world is that although some of my papers are of mathematical interest, they rarely have the detail of math papers. And I can’t provide that detail. I simply don’t have the right background. What I bring to the subject is an ability to understand what quantum field theory or string theory have to say about a math question. But quantum field theory and string theory are not in the precise mathematical form where such statements can usually be rigorous.
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Physicist: 不懂,全是math;
Mathematician: 不懂,全是physics;
committee: 发个medal, 让他以后别来了;
Done! (just kidding)
2022-05-19 评一篇论文:字里行间都能感到一种热忱。本人一直没搞懂相对论,景仰那“身在此山仍识得庐山真面目”的人,特别是Poincare …… 22年前同Wald教授简短谈论过L. Logunov(及其工作),几乎快把后者遗忘了,没想到以这样的方式重逢。
打错字,是A.A.L. 顺便说,这个系列里提到的A. Logunov,很早就和N. N. Bogolyubov一起写了著名的公理化量子场论,后来又一起写了量子场论一般原理(不牛不敢这么起名字吧?)。而关于Poincare和狭义相对论的那本书,应该是他很早(2004,如果我没记错) 先发布在arxiv的预印本Poincare & Relativity. 我一直不知道此书后来出版,都是读的那个预印本。
2022-04-01——05-10 上海因疫情封控
在此期间我并未再做任何记录,每天都是核酸和团购生活用品、等待发放生活用品,这是一段难忘的经历。
5-10 A. Tang受邀在复旦报告,我新发朋友圈,生活逐渐正常。
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2022-02-03 参观印象派画展,我喜欢的一幅“小众”作品,维涅的《云彩印象》,天、地、云、水,抓住了相变和光的关系
“我入睡前会最后看一眼大海与天空,然后在十点钟入睡,卧在床榻之上,我仍然可以看到那深邃柔和的色调。这色调不属于白天,也不属于深夜。”—阿 卡尔斯
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2022-01-20 开年的第二次E. Witten报告。
他分析了S. Weinberg的思想演进的三大阶段(每段~20年,EW是SW亲自招的学生),报告最后留下的SW的话(highlight是EW本人所加)
从SW逝世再后推20年,EW也已英雄迟暮,未来一片混沌,“final...revealed”?只能说老人家可称“革命乐观主义”。
截图。
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2022-01-19 带小朋友去参观上海天文馆,一趟就把老腰走折了,这两天只能看闲书冲盹儿,一翻开英语书困劲儿特别大。
作者手书:“我非我;你非他/她;他们亦非他们”一下就让我想起了贾宝玉的偈子,“无我原非你,从他不解伊”,看来小说家们想法趋近。
这话是真懂了quantum many body physics
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伽利略研究所纪念温伯格special seminar[注意3pm是CET时间,北京时间晚10点]
the 2022 GGI Tea Breaks’ series. We are happy to announce a Special Edition dedicated to the research of Steven Weinberg, its impact and legacy in theoretical physics. The programme of “Steven Weinberg and his legacy” includes four talks, each focused on a particular broad area of research where the work of Weinberg led to breakthrough progress. His contribution will be put into historical context and its relevance for present-day research will be discussed. The talks will be given by:
1. Riccardo Barbieri (SNS Pisa), The Standard Model of particle physics
2. Howard M. Georgi (Harvard University), Effective field theories and the low-energy limit of strong interactions
3. Edward Witten (IAS Princeton), On the role and meaning of symmetries in field theory
4. Nima Arkani-Hamed (IAS Princeton), Gravity as an effective field theory and the cosmological constant
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2022-01-07 Einstein 的家教广告
“正义胡同”[呲牙]请教了一下德国同事,解读如下,Gerechtigkeit (justice) + gasse (small side road). 所以,“street of justice”,公正街32号。
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2022-01-13 读过的英文文献已经颠覆我读书时候的很多“观”了,更不要说曾经的物理学中心的德语(反正看不懂,当鸵鸟吧),另外,相当的物理学家在解读别人的论文时,态度跟“严谨”不大沾边,所以,还是应【尽最大可能】去看原始文献[捂脸] (鼓励制造论文,泛滥后大部分精力被浪费在海量“人造伪问题”的甄别上)
由最近听过的某报告引发的一点感想
K. Pearson和Lord Rayleigh显然不知道1900年Bachelier (Poincare的学生) 已经解决了(数学的)随机行走问题,甚至(很可能)也不知道Einstein在同年(1905)解决了布朗运动,也就是物理的随机行走问题。Einstein也不知道Bachelier的工作,他推导布朗运动潜在地用了后来被称为Fokker-Planck方程的路子。Poincare那时由于身体原因,已经无暇顾及自己的学生,最终Bachelier被遗忘在了历史的角落里,我猜他是Zweig欣赏的“那类人”。
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2022-01-06 重温温伯格,顺带说自己的一个“秘密”:必看序言。年末岁尾人已疲惫,抓本好看的书对冲一下批改试卷,干涉相消,波澜不兴。
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