Ink Time…

Ah, time to relax a bit after a somewhat busy last couple of days glued to the notebook and computer. The results? (1) A hasty colloquium to an audience of mixed expertise to try to get across a sense of why some of us are excited about various applications of string theory a diverse range of physics including ongoing experiments in nuclear physics and condensed matter physics (the person who was going to do it was a bit ill apparently so I stepped in with some hastily prepared slides… a bit messy but hopefully some use)… (2) Two papers with my student Tameem on applications of string theory techniques to superconductivity (one will appear on the ArXiv in about 20 minutes if you are interested [update: it is here.])… (3) Notes for a talk I’ll give on Thursday about said new results… (4) Several discussions with and ideas sent to some documentary film makers about some new TV shows coming up – Season 4 of The Universe! Seems I’ll get involved in some of them (stay tuned)…

So this morning I went to sit and cool down a bit at a cafe I like to visit a lot when in Aspen. Ink Coffee. Ok, I see that I did not yet mention I was in Aspen. Have been for a while. My annual physics retreat to think and calculate, but much earlier than in the recent past. I’m supposed to be just hiding, but it is only partial hiding since (1) There are ongoing things I can’t fully decouple from (see some above) … (2) I’ve got to keep posting things on Asymptotia for you, dear reader… (3) There are three fascinating workshops on here at the Aspen Center for Physics that I happened to coincide with. One is on applications of strings to nuclear physics and condensed matter (I’d intended to overlap somewhat with that one), but there is another on aspects of Cosmology that overlap with some work and ideas in my field, and there is another, condensed matter one, on ultra-cold gases, which, if you’ve been paying attention to any of my recent physics posts, is an area of physics that interests me a lot from the point of view of being another arena where some of the string theory work that has been going on of late may have something interesting to say. So hiding away and decoupling to do physics has been less than easy since there is a lot to learn and discuss (and to contribute to, in the form of my colloquium and the talk mentioned above).

All good, on balance. I’ll do a deeper retreat from it all once I’ve left Aspen, further into the Summer.

-cvj