Comments on: Quantum Physics at the Crossroads

By: mleifer

mleifer — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:07:15 +0000

Possibly. I don’t know how I could easily get hold of a copy to check. Nevertheless, the main point is that he had a complete formulation of non-relativistic QM without spin before anyone else, and that still stands.

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:08:05 +0000

I hate to break this to you, but de Broglie’s thesis was shorter than that. It was what is widely known in the Chinese community as “a page, plus a little bit more”.

By: Chris W.

Chris W. — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 22:59:46 +0000

FYI — I finally read this post through carefully, and noticed a few typos along the way (for what it’s worth):

regailaing, intrroduces, stong, usuall, discsussion, meachanics, desciption, levelled

By: Matthew Leifer

Matthew Leifer — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 12:09:27 +0000

t’Hooft is an exception and does indeed seem to listen very carefully to all the talks every time I’ve seen him at a meeting. I think it’s a point of principle for him to do so, and that’s something I can respect, even if I don’t have the energy to mimic it myself.

By: Chris W.

Chris W. — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 20:06:55 +0000

Matt,
Regarding the interchanges at conferences, Lee Smolin notes in his new book (TTWP) that Gerard ‘t Hooft comes to most of the talks, notably those by younger researchers, at conferences in which he participates.* Perhaps Smolin was mainly referring to conferences at Perimeter. I assume you have encountered ‘t Hooft yourself at some point.

(* ‘t Hooft tends to stand out because of his rather formal attire.)

By: Matthew Leifer

Matthew Leifer — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 10:35:37 +0000

OK, fair enough, but those are both mathematics theses. I think it used to be quite common for math theses to be shorter than many other subjects, because the whole aim is to present the most general result in as concise a way as possible. Of course, these days it is common for them to be quite a bit longer because of the inclusion of computer code and numerical data.

On the other hand, I think it’s unlikely that anyone would have awarded a whole Ph.D. just for writing down lambda = h/p, however important and inspired this equation may be. My main point was that there is more in de Broglie’s thesis than just this, even if most physicists don’t want to follow his approach today.

By: JoseIRS

JoseIRS — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 08:54:17 +0000

Gödel’s thesis was only 12 pages!

By: Ralph Hartley

Ralph Hartley — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 22:44:04 +0000

My grandfather’s PhD thesis was between 10 and 20 pages. It still gets refereced occationally.

Here is a link to the Jornal version:

Here is a link to the jornal version
(but I think the link will only work if your institution subscribes).

I can’t understand a word of it.