Mathematics - 2017-08-09 (page 4 of 4)

Akiva Weinberger

23:01

"Is up a flavor"

Goddamn physics names make no sense

Semiclassical

eh, in defense of that, you're trying to talk about properties of entities you can't really visualize or interact with in any usual way

so you kinda have to make up terminology

on the other hand, top/bottom is pretty weird. I'd prefer truth/beauty :>

Balarka Sen

this looks like a good album

Akiva Weinberger

Back when everything sciency was based on Latin (like "pendulum") everything felt more official. Like proton, electron, molecule

But now stuff is based on English ("Big Bang"), so we have, uh, charm

Semiclassical

neutrino: little neutral one

Akiva Weinberger

I'm assuming those were Latin, I'm not actually sure

Semiclassical

23:04

neutrino is italian, I think.

Perturbative

@Akiva "Spaghettification"

Akiva Weinberger

Oh yeah lol

Semiclassical

'gluon'

skullpatrol

muon

Semiclassical

pion

Akiva Weinberger

23:05

Where did the name gluon come from

Semiclassical

glue, I suspect

Akiva Weinberger

Oh wow it was

Semiclassical

because it's the force carrier of the strong nuclear force binding quarks together into nucleons

and oh hey nucleons

Perturbative

No love for gravitons?

Akiva Weinberger

Who came up with strange

Feynman maybe?

Semiclassical

23:07

"Strangeness was introduced by Murray Gell-Mann, Abraham Pais and Kazuhiko Nishijima to explain the
fact that certain particles, such as the kaons or the hyperons Σ and Λ, were created easily in particle collisions,
yet decayed much more slowly than expected for their large masses and large production cross sections. Noting that collisions seemed to always produce pairs of these particles, it was postulated that a new conserved quantity, dubbed "strangeness", was preserved during their creation, but not conserved in their decay."

bah

Akiva Weinberger

Oh crap @BalarkaSen you're gonna like this

You know where the word "quark" comes from

Finnegans Wake

Balarka Sen

Joyce

damn sniped

but yeah

Semiclassical

"Three quarks for Muster Mark!" I think?

Balarka Sen

@Akiva also you spelled that wrong

Semiclassical

Though what's even better than quark is its proposed supersymmetric partner

Balarka Sen

23:09

getcho spelling straight

Semiclassical

"squark"

Perturbative

@Semiclassical I remember reading that in Feynmans book

Semiclassical

similarly there's such a thing as a sneutralino

Akiva Weinberger

> In the past, bottom and top quarks were sometimes referred to as "beauty" and "truth" respectively, but these names have somewhat fallen out of use.

Perturbative

*One of his books

Semiclassical

23:10

@akiva yep

Akiva Weinberger

jesus fucking christ

Semiclassical

I like those because they fit better with the rest of the flavor designations

if you're going to have strange quarks and charm quarks, you might as well have truth and beauty quarks.

Balarka Sen

are quarks a thing

Akiva Weinberger

Nah it's all a lie

Perturbative

Yep @Balarka

Akiva Weinberger

23:11

They're inside you right now

Semiclassical

yes and no. insofar as the quark model is able to explain the properties of the strong force, yes.

Perturbative

I semi-sniped you @Semi

Semiclassical

but no one has ever observed a free quark, and our current understanding of QCD is such that one doesn't expect to.

Balarka Sen

Lost Highway - Mystery Man

►

Akiva Weinberger

So if a quark and an antiquark make a chargeless thingy

can I put like 10^23 of those together and end up with something useful

and visible

and atomless

Semiclassical

23:15

interestingly, while I'm not a QCD guy by any means

one of the big problems in trying to understand QCD is that it's really really hard to make computations

one route in that regard is known as lattice QCD, and one of the problems you run into there is the numerical sign problem. that's something i do know a bit about and find interesting, though I'm not able to say anything useful

Akiva Weinberger

Would quantum computers help

Semiclassical

I dunno. a quick google search shows that people have thought about it, but I haven't.

skullpatrol

What do you mean by numerical "sign" problem?

Balarka Sen

ok, this black metal album is really interesting

Semiclassical

Numerical sign problem

The numerical sign problem in applied mathematics refers to the difficulty of numerically evaluating the integral of a highly oscillatory function of a large number of variables. Numerical methods fail because of the near-cancellation of the positive and negative contributions to the integral. Each has to be integrated to very high precision in order for their difference to be obtained with useful accuracy. The sign problem is one of the major unsolved problems in the physics of many-particle systems. It often arises in calculations of the properties of a quantum mechanical system with large number...

skullpatrol

23:24

ACM's heavy metal concert caught your interest.

Thnx @Semiclassical

Semiclassical

Basically: Physicists really really like being able to use Monte Carlo methods, and it's a real pain when those aren't applicable.

Balarka Sen

well i have been meaning to listen to some metal lately

but this album isn't like anything i have ever heard or imagined would sound like

apparently it's critically acclaimed

Akiva Weinberger

Give me $\sin(10^6)$ to three decimal places

Wait that's actually probably not hard to do

Give me $\sin(10^{100})$ to three decimal places

(Don't actually)

Daminark

@Akiva in either event my answer is: "wai tho?"

user147690

@BalarkaSen Which album?

user147690

23:36

Oh I see, you linked Ulver.

Balarka Sen

Yeah

Listening to the first album

user147690

Kaj recommended this, on his facebook. I think it's very good.

Balarka Sen

Oh, Kaj is a big metalhead. He recommended good things to me in the past.

Let's see

user147690

@BalarkaSen I'm listening now. I haven't heard this.

Balarka Sen

Oh wow Russian stuff

user147690

23:42

He really is a big metal head :P

Balarka Sen

I have been meaning to get into some form of metal for a few weeks now

I don't really know anything about that genre

user147690

Well for starters I can recommend Mgla - Exercises in futility (and their other albums), Harakiri for the sky - any album

If you feel like it of course

user147690

(All similar flavors to black, post-black)

Avantgarde

Someone say black metal? :D

Mgła is pretty nice

Balarka Sen

Meet @Avantgarde, another metalhead

Avantgarde

23:47

Thanks @Balarka :P

user147690

@Avantgarde Have you heard any harakiri for the sky?

Avantgarde

@AlexClark A little, yes

Balarka Sen

I was listening to Ulver, for the reference. Old hat to you, I suspect

user147690

@BalarkaSen I hadn't heard of them (but have listened to plenty of black metal), so it's possible Avantgarde hadn't I suppose

Avantgarde

Oh yes, Ulver is great. Good choice, it didn't occur to me that you (@Balarka) might like them

Balarka Sen

23:50

@AlexClark Oh huh interesting

I guess they're rather unorthodox

Avantgarde

They don't do black metal anymore. They've moved to experimental electronic stuff

Balarka Sen

@Avantgarde I only found out about them today and listened to the Bergtatt. I thought it was very very good

Avantgarde

@BalarkaSen Yes, that is a pretty good album from their old times

lol didn't sleep?

Balarka Sen

lol nope

i will in a bit

it seems like a generic conscience is that these extreme forms of metal are hard to get into. i kind of agree, my limited attempt at it has been mostly futile

my musical background is mostly rock and roll stuff

Avantgarde

That's ok. I was into Katy Perry a few years ago. You'll get there.

if you want to

user147690

23:55

@Avantgarde :O

Avantgarde

No joke!

user147690

@Avantgarde Well who can't get behind a few of her songs ;P

Balarka Sen

At least you weren't into Jake Paul

Avantgarde

oh my god Balarka, get him out of your head

Balarka Sen

he's a genius really

have you googled his age?

that's like a must, otherwise you're gonna have a bad day

Avantgarde

23:57

no. Is this some kind of a joke?

Ted Shifrin

heya Alex ... Long time no see

user147690

He is not very old!

Balarka Sen

no, literally google "jake paul age"

Perturbative

Balarka pls

stahp

Avantgarde

1? lol

Perturbative

23:57

Hey! @TedShifrin

Avantgarde

seems about right for the kind of raps he does

Ted Shifrin

hi Perturbative

user147690

Hey @TedShifrin, here forever I see :D.

Ted Shifrin

I'm not dead yet, Alex.

user147690

Oh my.

Balarka Sen

23:58

@Avantgarde It's Everday Bro is genre-defining work

he's really discovering a new kind of rap

which is meant to sound like shit

user147690

I remember you saying you might quit MSE, since you were done with math!

Ted Shifrin

some of the people here get very annoying, Alex

user147690

@BalarkaSen I am 95% sure this is a joke.

Balarka Sen

Hi @Ted

user147690

@TedShifrin Oh I'm sure. But if you use the ignore function liberally...

Ted Shifrin

23:59

but I'm actually going to teach a real class starting in a few weeks, Alex ... precalculus for gifted high school kids.

speaking of very annoying, hi, @Balarka :D

user147690

@TedShifrin Oh, very nice. Back out of retirement already.

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$Mathematics$ Mathematics