Comments on: 226. Top ten open problems in physics

By: theorist

theorist — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:02:16 +0000

Truly written by a high energy person. The only condensed matter problem mentioned is high Tc superconductivity because it’s too tantalizing for technological reasons, and turbulence because it is so simple to formulate. Forgotten are: transport near a quantum critical point (some people say AdS-CFT will solve this, so you, string theorists, should pay attention), topological states of nature and fractional/non-Abelian particles (yes, from the point of view of a string theorist, this is about how to make an effective Chern-Simons theory using interacting bosons and fermions, but it’s not as simple as it sounds), disordered magnets down to zero Kelvin (or how to make spins behave like Yang-Mills fields, so you, string theory types, tremble), and so on.

By: Jasper

Jasper — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:57:24 +0000

I wonder if the Navier-stokes equations are Turing complete..

By: Alex G

Alex G — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:13:17 +0000

Thanks for the excellent posting, Dmitry! I have heard that modeling the accretion disks around super-massive black holes is one of the most difficult problems around, due to the combination of turbulence with relativistic masses and velocities. Would you care to comment?

By: Top Ten Open Problems in Physics « Successful Researcher

Top Ten Open Problems in Physics « Successful Researcher — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:08:00 +0000

[...] Ten Open Problems in Physics A list by Dmitry [...]

By: Robert Zuniga

Robert Zuniga — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:12:08 +0000

Great summary of current 21st Century puzzles. These are present opportunities for quality time thinking.

Thanks,

Robert

By: Quod Erat Demonstrandum (Q.E.D.): there is NO sales in Science | Secrets of Success In Physics

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:06:41 +0000

[...] http://www.nonequilibrium.net/.....s-physics/ [...]

By: NEQNET: Last two weeks of April | NEQNET: Non-equilibrium Phenomena

NEQNET: Last two weeks of April | NEQNET: Non-equilibrium Phenomena — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:36:45 +0000

[...] Somehow, I decided to study the physics of thermonuclear fusion a bit to get some understanding of the problem that I assigned N7 in my list to… [...]

By: Dmitry

Dmitry — Fri, 01 May 2009 07:38:44 +0000

Dear Ignacio,

thanks for the comment and for dropping by. Understanding the nature of life is certainly the major problem, probably comparable to N1 in its complexity. My impression is that it should be also related to the problem N3 (turbulence and chaotic behavior of dynamical systems) in the sense that it is a counterpart of the problem N3 – one has to explain self-organization appearing out of chaos

Cheers,
Dmitry.

P.S. By the way, take a look at http://tglab.princeton.edu/

By: Ignacio

Ignacio — Fri, 01 May 2009 05:04:15 +0000

Dear Dmitry,

First of all, I found your post very interesting, although I am not a phisicyst. However I would like to propose another problem for the list, which I think is a major one.

Although it may not be strictly in the field of phisycs, the problem is life. How inanimate matter operates combines inside a cell in order to become living matter.

I would like to hear your opinion about this problem. I’m sorry if this is out of place.

Regards,
Ignacio

By: Thermonuclear fusion: some basic facts about thermonuclear reactions | NEQNET: Non-equilibrium Phenomena

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:18:24 +0000

[...] I wrote Ten open problems in physics, the ultimate plan behind the post was that I first list those problems and then discuss every [...]

By: Nishant

Nishant — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:30:25 +0000

Hmmm, that is indeed strange considering that the mathematicians and physicists working in NCG, string theory etc. (like Connes, Yoccoz et al) are yet skeptical about the status of string theory vis-a-vis LQG. [To be fair I myself am a proponent of String Theory, but it always is safer to discard prominent 'loopholes' in a theory before we regard it as the benchmark!] This situation is analogous to the debate of Big Bang vs Steady State where they pretty much nullified the Steady State theory and I would like such conclusive evidence to tilt the balance beyond a shadow of doubt. Thanks.

By: Dmitry

Dmitry — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:33:05 +0000

Dear Nishant,

I think, yes, many people have pretty much concluded

Cheers,
Dmitry.

By: Nishant

Nishant — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:09:57 +0000

Have we yet concluded as to which one is more likely – String Theory or the Loop Quantum gravity? If not, why is that not one of the problems included herein ?

By: An interesting, Russian point of view on importance of turbulence problem « Alex’s Blog

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:59:38 +0000

[...] leave a comment » 226. Top ten open problems in physics [...]

By: 253. Video of the day: first time machine

253. Video of the day: first time machine — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:05:19 +0000

[...] Channel program (for children really – but featuring Ronald Mallett from the U. of Connecticut) related to the problem N1 in my list. NEQNET would like to state officially that time travel is [...]