140. First two weeks of December at NEQNET

Dear friends

Before I proceed to the (becoming usual already) list of posts published at NEQNET during the last two weeks, let me say a couple of words about the blog itself, which is currently the source of  my pride

1. First of all, the number of subscribers to our RSS feed has crossed the number 120 recently. I hope I didn’t disappoint you much, dear newcomers

2. NEQNET is now listed in DMOZ, open directory of the best internet cites around, together with such very popular blogs as Lubos Motl’s “Reference Frame“, “Cosmic variance” or its new host “ScienceBlogs“.

3. Probably because of the issues (1) and (2) the number of pageviews has reached yesterday 1200/day, while our Alexa Rank is now below 500000 (let me note that the transition from Alexa Rank 1900000 to Alexa Rank 500000 has happened in less than 2 months). Although it is a very long way to become as popular as “Reference Frame” (who currently has Alexa Rank around 120000), we will walk it together, you’ll see

4. I have finally discovered that StumbleUpon is able to send some decent traffic to the site

5. The last but the most important – NEQNET has finally ceased to be the blog of a single blogger. First of all, Jim Kotsybar decided not to be so shy as he was, and as a result – he was offered a space at NEQNET to share his poetry about physics and physicists with us. Please be nice to him, and you will find that he is great. Second, you are to see many new guest blog posts at NEQNET. By the way, if you want to share your thoughts about recent papers in arxiv or anything else related to science, please check out this page, you will be certainly welcome to make a guest post at NEQNET.

All of this happened during last two weeks. But enough self-advertisement… Just stay with us!

Physics

* Fun with energy gap for QCD Born-Oppenheimer Hamiltonian

I propose three different estimations for the mass gap in Born-Oppenheimer Hamiltonian for two heavy quarks. You are to decide which one is correct. Although the poll has come to the end, I am yet to present its results and explain what is the correct answer for the energy gap. Don’t worry, I remember about the poll

* Talk in Munich. Regularizing inflaton correlation functions

I explain how stochastic formalism shows that the infrared divergences in inflationary cosmology are getting regularized by effects of eternal inflation.

* On interaction between coherent condensate and turbulent flow in two dimensions

I discuss the interaction between coherent and turbulent flows in the upper layers of the atmosphere of the Earth.

* Where are the quarks in the Wilson loop?

I explain where quark operators are hidden in the definition of the Wilson loop and why it can be interpreted in terms of the quark path. This post appeared as a result of my conversation with one of you

* AdS/CFT and condensed matter applications

I decided to study what is behind attempts to describe high temperature superconductivity by AdS/CFT duality. I am left unhappy but then small research makes me happy again – some condensed matter can be indeed described by gauge theories.

* Talk in Munich. Regularizing correlator of curvature perturbation

I explain how to calculate correlation functions of the curvature perturbation from stochastic formalism and why these correlation functions are IR finite.

* From quarks to strings. On Liouville modes, instantons and confinement in Abelian theories

I discuss several physical ideas in the recent paper by Alexander Polyakov: Liouville mode and instanton picture of confinement in abelian QED.

* From quarks to strings. Migdal-Makeenko equation and AdS/CFT correspondence

I continue to discuss the recent Polyakov’s paper on string theory and quarks. The subject now is the loop equation, related technical difficulties and explanation why it may help for AdS/CFT studies.

* Ashtekar at Perimeter Institute

Abhay Ashtekar has recently visited PI. I briefly discuss his two talks – one about Big Bang singularity, another-about information loss in BH. Fascinating exchange with Lubos Motl in comments

* A question in general relativity and another poll

Jim Kotsybar (I am now willing to disclose it ) has asked a relativity-related question, and I would lke to know what my readers think The poll is closed now, and I have to present the correct answer.

* Non-gaussianity from postinflationary universe

I explain how topologically non-trivial defects contribute into the cosmic microwave background radiation observed by us.

* Multifield inflation on the landscape

A guest post by my friend Thorsten Battefeld from the Princeton U., who explains the mechanism of staggered inflation, that can be realized on string theory landscape.

* Cosmic strings – simple and nice introduction into the topic

I briefly discuss the recent introductionary review of cosmic strings by Achucarro and Martins.

Biology

* Synthetic biology and iGem: interview

I have interviewed the leader of the Russian team participated in iGem 07, international student competition in synthetic biology.

* Synthetic biology and iGem: part 2

In 2nd part of the interview, the leader of the Russian team in iGem 07 shares with us his thoughts on technologies of molecular cloning and the future of nanotechnology in Russia .

Poetry

* Melancholy

Jim Kotsybar has just sent me his another poem, which I liked very much (as usual) and would want to share it with you.

* Illuminated

James Kotsybar is offered space at NEQNET and joins its writers officially as a Singer of Physics.

Fun, Various

* Metamodern – trajectory of technology

Eric Drexler, the founding father of nanotechnology, just has made his blog public and I acknowledge this fact

* Fun with Amazon.com

As you know very well, Amazon.com is an incredible source of extremely valuable assets which can become yours with just one click (well… several clicks…). Let us find out what Amazon has to offer in Christmas season…

* Steven Chu is the secretary of energy

Nobel Prize Winner Steven Chu is going to become the Secretary of Energy. It is great to feel that I was wrong about Obama – he will listen scientists (and one of them – every single day).

* Google Books now include magazines

Google has just announced that it is going to include all issues of many magazines into the Google Books index.