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00:00 - 16:0016:00 - 00:00

12:06 AM
@Slereah I don't think so. He had better reasons to do it if wanted to ;)
@0celo7 nothing.
I'd miss the joy
 
Ma shaa Allah, brother.
 
@DawoodibnKareem thanks :)
 
12:37 AM
Hi, @Mostafa.
How's it going?
 
@DanielSank Hi
@DanielSank Fine, thanks
 
@Mostafa Ooof.
rough
 
@DanielSank oh it was a typo. It's 16.5 hours
The same user both asked this and answered this. strange.
 
Not so strange, I think.
The delta function stuff involves calculus and a somewhat subtle understanding of linear algebra.
The spin stuff is a lot simpler.
IMHO
 
12:54 AM
The answer looks like he/she may have copied it from somewhere, at least partially. the question indicates that he/she is actually starting to think about things.
 
Hello, @DawoodibnKareem, we haven't met.
 
Hello Daniel. Right you are.
 
Are you a student?
Oh, I guess not.
 
No, it's been many years since I was a student.
I guess you've just looked at my profile, right?
 
yes
 
1:00 AM
@DanielSank I am a BS in electrical engineering and knew that. How can someone with a Master's in theoretical physics not know this?
 
@Mostafa No idea.
People do and don't know all kinds of weird stuff.
I have a PhD in physics and you'd be surprised what I don't know :)
 
@DanielSank Yeah right. same for me (about basic electrical engineering stuff)
 
Remember that the goal of all the Stack Exchange sites is to build up a resource of useful questions and answers. There's no rule against asking a question that you already know the answer to, if it contributes to that goal.
 
@DawoodibnKareem you know what's funny about that? I got four downvotes for this:
4
Q: Consistent, complete, and generalized description of the quantum harmonic oscillator

DanielSankTextbooks often introduce the quantum harmonic oscillator with the example of a mass on a spring, giving the Hamiltonian $$H = \frac{1}{2} k x^2 + \frac{1}{2m}p^2 \qquad [x,p] = i \hbar \, .$$ The raising/lowering operators are then introduced as $$a = \sqrt{\frac{m \omega_0}{2 \hbar}} \left( x +...

 
And 8 upvotes, apparently. It seems like a good question. Make that 9 upvotes :-)
Oh, I just realised you answered it too.
I should do that kind of thing occasionally on SO.
I don't know what it means to "accept" an answer on Physics.SE. I understand upvoting and downvoting. But surely, in most cases, the original querent is someone who doesn't know the correct answer. It makes no sense to me, to give that person a vote that's worth an additional 15 unicorn points.
It's not like Stack Overflow, where most of the questions are "how do I do XYZ" and the accepted answer is supposed to be the answer that the original querent actually used, and solved their problem for them.
 
1:11 AM
@DawoodibnKareem Actually the secret to getting * a lot* of gold badges (famous question badge) is this: Ask as many very rudimentary question as you can.
even if they're close-worthy ;)
This is the list of the questions with over 200k views here: physics.stackexchange.com/search?q=views%3A200000
 
Right. People upvote questions that they understand.
However, I'm not really interested in getting a lot of gold badges. I only ask
questions if it's something my teenage son wants to know. And I only answer questions if I feel I can add something that hasn't already been covered by other answers.
 
1:41 AM
Does anyone know good software for Quantum Infomration Simulation
 
@Cryolune Well the phases look like this:
 
I see.
well who cares about realism.
 
$M \in SL(2,\mathbb{C}), \sigma_{\mu} M \overline{\sigma}^{\mu} = 2 \mathrm{tr}(M) I_{2,2}$?
 
yes
 
@SirCumference What's supposed to be unrealistic?
 
1:49 AM
@DawoodibnKareem I dunno, fiction
 
 
3 hours later…
4:32 AM
@DawoodibnKareem well, that's one of the goals. A major one, to be sure, but it's not the sole purpose of the site. (If it were, we'd probably just be a wiki)
@dmckee oh, I wasn't looking for support. The joke is that telnet is so irrelevant these days that I don't even have it installed.
 
4:45 AM
0
Q: A discussion about Quantum Gravity and Semiclassical Gravity

Jack ClerkOk. I really would like to start asking a "polemic" question for the people who work in GR and Semiclassical Gravity: Why we just simply do not embrace Superstring Theory? I mean: All the other fields have a quantum nature, Math have been guiding humanity since the beggining, why just we simply d...

Unclear? Too broad? Primarily opinion-based?
 
@Qmechanic all of the above, probably. I'd choose POB as the primary reason for closure.
 
 
2 hours later…
Sir
6:23 AM
Hi

If i have the formula in computer code:
distanceTravelled = v0 * TotalFlightTime - dragCoefficient * TotalFlightTime * 2

Now, I am trying to find the total flight time elapsed for a given distance but not sure how to do so. does any one do much programming for this kind of stuff?
 
You don't need programming to do that, it's just basic algebra.
 
 
1 hour later…
7:38 AM
@Sir You just write the formula in code. The program would hardly be more than a few lines long
 
user228700
8:20 AM
@JohnR: Morning :-)
 
Hi :-)
 
user228700
How goes it?
 
user228700
@JohnR:
 
user228700
21 hours ago, by Kaumudi. H
Say, from where do u usually download subtitles?
 
user228700
?
 
8:27 AM
Apologies for the high latency. I was writing some stuff on the SciFi stack exchange.
Let me check what subtitle site I've been using. Hang on a mo ...
 
user228700
OK :-)
 
Found it!
 
user228700
Ah, OK. Thank you!! :-)
 
But be a little careful with this site as there is some spyware on it.
 
user228700
Dang. OK...
 
8:34 AM
Suppose you were searching for subtitle to Deadpool (this is purely hypothetical of course :-). You search for "Deadpool" and get a page like:
To download the subtitles click on the link where I've indicated, or in that column on any of the subtitles, then wait and the download should start automatically.
When you click you'll be taken to another page, but don't click anything on that page. Just wait, and the subtitles should download without you needing to do anything further.
 
user228700
Damn, it's actually Greek or something.
 
The subtitles will probably download as a .zip file. Click the .zip file to open it and you should see a .srt file inside it, which is what you want.
@Kaumudi.H Oops yes, the third one down is English
The flags show the language
 
user228700
...and I am an idiot.
 
Well, I missed it as well :-)
 
user228700
Doesn't work :-/
 
8:42 AM
@Kaumudi.H as in doesn't download, or the SRT file doesn't work?
 
user228700
The file. Timing isn't correct.
 
You'll find films often come in subtly different edits, and each edit needs its own subtitle file. You could try one of the other subtitle files in the listing to see if it's better. At the end of the day these are subtitles put together by enthusiasts so they come with no guarantee.
 
user228700
Yes, yes, I know...
 
user228700
Anyhoo. Thanks! :-)
 
is it legal?
 
user228700
8:47 AM
Probably?
 
Good night everyone (it's almost dawn here in Brazil acctually).

Here it comes my question of the main site: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/341100/a-discussion-about-quantum-gravity-and-semiclassical-gravity

And here is the same question for the chat:

"Ok. I really would like to start asking a "polemic" question for the people who work in GR and Semiclassical Gravity: Why we just simply do not embrace Superstring Theory? I mean: All the other fields have a quantum nature, Math have been guiding humanity since the beggining, why just we simply do not embrace the concept of a
from the main site**
 
polemic questions are frowned upon
 
Sid
Anyone here interested in Cryptic Crosswords?
 
No
We're interested in the physical world, not the words
words are meaningless if not to describe the physical world
 
Mr Kenshin, did you read the question? Have you some opinion?
 
8:49 AM
@JackClerk yes I did read the question
Superstring theory is wrong, that's why we don't embrace it
@JackClerk you must understand, gravity isn't a "field" it is the nature of the spacetime fabric itself
 
I see. You work with gravity?
 
Hi @JackClerk
 
Hello @JohnRennie
 
There are some major conceptual issues with quantum gravity that we have very little idea how to solve.
Right now it's too early to say with confidence that any of the theories of quantum gravity are likely to be the ultimate theory.
 
Yes I work with gravity
 
8:56 AM
Reading the popular science press will give you the idea there are quantum gravity wars with opposing sides fighting for their own theory, but the reality isn't like that. Right now there is no theory that successfully describes the classical limit i.e. general relativity.
 
Everyone works with gravity when they stand up
 
I can't speak for all physicists but I suspect most would agree with me that it's far too early to pick sides, and most of us have an open mind.
 
Yes, I agree with you. But, I would like to explore more about Semiclassical Gravity, because It seems more "stable" to do some science.
Also, some people already told me that Semiclassical Gravity (or QFT in curved spacetimes following the sense of Wald and Parker books, and the "habitat" of black hole themodynamics and so on) IS NOT an Quantum Gravity research.
 
@JohnRennie do you think people are progressing on the problem? or just waiting to have an aha moment?
 
and inthe "habitat"**
But still deals with quantum effects like Unruh Effect. It's a little bit confunsing to me.
 
8:59 AM
@JackClerk semiclassical gravity uses the expectation value of the quantum stress-energy tensor in the field equations, but this can only ever be an approximation. For example it isn't clear how we write the equations for a source that is in a superposition.
 
Cool, that's quite interesting.
 
With the Hawking/Unruh effect it isn't really semiclassical gravity because it ignores backreaction. This is generally described as quantum field theory in a curved background.
In particle physics, quantum field theory in curved spacetime is an extension of standard, Minkowski space quantum field theory to curved spacetime. A general prediction of this theory is that particles can be created by time-dependent gravitational fields (multigraviton pair production), or by time-independent gravitational fields that contain horizons. == Description == Interesting new phenomena occur; owing to the equivalence principle the quantization procedure locally resembles that of normal coordinates where the affine connection at the origin is set to zero and a nonzero Riemann tensor...
 
@JackClerk why do you want to work with quantum gravity?
 
This is strange, I've read some articles that said that Quantum Field Theory in a curved background is a synonym to Semicalssical Gravity
@Ken
 
9:06 AM
@JohnRennie that's is an phrase that I've heard many times!
 
The trick is basically that semiclassical gravity is QFT in curved spacetime + the EFE
$$R_{\mu\nu} - \frac{1}{2}R g_{\mu\nu} = \langle \psi, \hat T_{\mu\nu} \psi \rangle$$
@JohnRennie the equation for a superposition is perfectly well defined
But!
It's one of the very few quantum gravity experiment we've actually done
The superposition of two quantum states for semiclassical gravity
And obviously it didn't work
 
But, just in a rougly point of view, assuming the spacetime something "classical" or "fundamental" is really right? I mean, why we should not expect another fundamental "thing" in quantum level that lead us to space-time as we know today?
 
I think the results are slightly controversial but I think overall nobody believes that semiclassical gravity is true
@JackClerk Well yes, but how
That's the real issue
 
roughly**
 
It's fairly hard to do
 
9:11 AM
@JackClerk there have been suggestions that spacetime is an emergent phenomenon. But then there have been suggestions of all sorts, none of which have any realistic claim to be the one true theory.
Entropic gravity, also known as emergent gravity, is a theory in modern physics that describes gravity as an entropic force—a force with macro-scale homogeneity but which is subject to quantum-level disorder—and not a fundamental interaction. The theory, based on string theory, black hole physics, and quantum information theory, describes gravity as an emergent phenomenon that springs from the quantum entanglement of small bits of spacetime information. As such, entropic gravity is said to abide by the second law of thermodynamics under which the entropy of a physical system tends to increase over...
 
Also recent measurements makes it unlikely that spacetime is discrete, too
Entropic gravity doesn't have spacetime as emergent
Only gravity
It still works in a fixed background
 
@Slereah could you please point me some of these mesuraments?
 
@Slereah it's currently formulated in a fixed background ...
 
@JohnRennie Well yes
Entropic gravity in a curved background would be weird
Modern searches for Lorentz violation are scientific studies that look for deviations from Lorentz invariance or symmetry, a set of fundamental frameworks that underpin modern science and fundamental physics in particular. These studies try to determine whether violations or exceptions might exist for well-known physical laws such as special relativity and CPT symmetry, as predicted by some variations of quantum gravity, string theory, and some alternatives to general relativity. Lorentz violations concern the fundamental predictions of special relativity, such as the principle of relativity, the...
 
I've heard some hard counterpoint about verlinde's gravity. From Lubos and Sabine I guess.
 
9:15 AM
Lubos has hard counterpoint for anything that isn't string theory
 
@JackClerk you'll hear all sorts of stuff shouted over the Internet, but you're just hearing the tiny fraction of physicists who shout loudest. They aren't representative.
 
I heard the earth was flat
 
@Kenshin It is! (locally :-)
 
There you have it people, the earth is flat
 
Locally
 
9:17 AM
yeah in fine print
 
Lubos should really update his blog to include a latex plugin
 
@JohnRennie how did you find out about entropic gravity?
 
Can't remember. The idea has been floating around for years.
 
@JohnRennie so if entropic gravity is right, does that mean QFT and GR have now been unified?
 
I agree with you,again John.
Just to point out my situation: I'm in Undergraduate level, and I'm still need to start to study Relativity and QM so my questions are just "for fun" I mean: I want to know where to do the best shot to persue in my career (But this is just part of the reason to think about Semiclassical Gravity).
 
9:20 AM
@JackClerk perhaps finance?
 
@Kenshin The current entropic gravity theories don't explain the origin of the microstructure responsible for the entropy, so they are purely phenomenological. They are far from anything like a unified theory.
 
I see ty
 
@JackClerk learn QFT first then see how much you like it. In fact start learning it now. QFT is entry level for this kind of work and unless you're comfortable with it you're going to struggle.
 
Before GR?
 
Let me get my usual graphic
 
9:23 AM
Learn GR first
 
Yes. GR is far easier then QFT.
If you have the horsepower to learn QFT you'll find GR easy.
 
@JohnRennie to clarify you're saying learn GR first right?
 
I'd say learn things concurently
 
no way
learn one thing at at time
 
9:24 AM
Advanced GR is much harder than basic QFT
 
no way
 
Acctually I like GR more than QFT.
 
@Kenshin No, I'm saying learn QFT first.
 
But
I don't know.
I need basic Math before.
 
@JohnRennie but you can learn GR quickly so why spend years learning QFT and not knowing GR, when you can quickly learn GR then spend years learning QFT but at least you have GR down pat
 
9:25 AM
that would be a good step, too
Learn to count
very important
 
@JackClerk GR is vastly more elegant that QFT. By comparison with GR QFT is a pile of badly fitting pieces joined together with rusty nails :-)
 
cf this
@JohnRennie obviously we're not reading the same GR :p
 
GR is a masterpiece
 
@Sir That formula doesn't look right to me. Drag coefficient should be dimensionless. Also, if that's ^2 rather than *2 at the end, you may need the quadratic formula.
 
@Slereah really? Classical GR is inelegant?
 
9:27 AM
If you learn QFT before GR you will never learn GR
because it takes a lifetime to learn QFT
but it only takes a month to learn GR
 
@JohnRennie It can be quite messy
 
@Slereah only in application
but we're not engineers so that's ok
 
I'm currently reading a paper on non-differentiable metrics
It's not pretty
 
No, it doesn't take a month to learn GR. Where'd you get that from?
 
@Slereah yeah I think the universe is differentiable
@Avantgarde from my professor why?
 
9:29 AM
Your professor probably doesn't know GR :p
 
@Slereah How does he publish papers in it?
 
@Kenshin No it doesn't. QFT courses take only a semester - maybe a year. The point is that unless you can master QFT the whole project is a bust, so learn QFT first and if you find you hate it (or fail at it!) you've minimised the time wasted.
 
@Slereah well whether he "understands" it or not, I guess he can paraphrase and say "it only takes a month to know enough GR to produce publishable works" in the field
 
9:31 AM
>it only takes a month to know enough GR to produce publishable works
 
It's very vague what 'publishable' means here
 
The term bollocks springs to mind :-)
 
Well I mean if all he does is just numerical simulations
maybe
 
@Avantgarde well (1) You stated my professeur doesn't understand GR, (2) My professeur publishes in GR. So how do you reconcile these?
 
I didn't state that. What I am saying is that you can't learn GR in a month. If that was even true, GR courses wouldn't run for a semester. They'd wind up within a month
 
9:33 AM
You can't teach GR to a class in a month
but a student can learn it in a month
Classes have to be slower because the teacher can't demand too much of the students
 
Ok
I think we scared him away
 
I think you could certainly get a good understanding of GR in a month. But this would be far from mastery of the subject.
 
Have you never felt you could learn things faster than the normal progression of the course?
 
Anyway, thanks everyone for the anwsers.
I think that the path: GR---->QM---->QFT seems more "linear"
 
@JohnRennie yeah we're not talking about mastery, it can take a lifetime to master many subjects
@JackClerk I would say QM then GR then QFT
 
9:35 AM
QM is (mostly) easy
If you do it the physicist way, that is
and don't worry about projection valued measures
 
@Kenshin OK, to learn it well enough to be able to publish original research would take far longer than a month.
 
@JohnRennie how long would that take?
 
This particular topic aside, it seems to me you're slowly going from philosophically analytical to increasingly opinionated while discussing things in this chat. I usually ignore users who do the latter.
Just sayin'
 
@BalarkaSen yeah I'm not a one trick pony
 
ba dum tshh
 
9:39 AM
but that said I do have analytical reasons to back up my opinions, but I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader
 
What will happen if I click "enable desktop notification"?
I don't want to click it and then enable a lifetime of pinging, being unable to find how to revert it
 
vov
 
I"m sure you'll figure out how to revert it
 
I have a tough time believing matters related to buttons located at remote corners of the screen
 
@Avantgarde click it and the link changes to disable desktop notifications
 
9:41 AM
You can revert it in your browser settings if you need to.
 
@JohnRennie Great, thanks for the answer
 
@Avantgarde all the link does is change your browser settings for notification. You can always revert it in the browser settings. In Chrome that's Settings/Advanced/Content. In other browsers I'm sure the solution is just a Google away.
 
@JohnRennie why don't advance physics textbooks contain pictures like the undegraduate books do?
 
@JohnRennie Okay, thanks for the info!
 
they do
Not all of them but they do
 
9:45 AM
All the one's I've read are just walls of text
maybe an occosaional black and white simplicistic figure
 
depends on the topic
 
but not photographs and coloured headings etc.
 
Photographs of what
You can't photograph a category
 
@Slereah fun idea tho
 
Like a pic of the LHC in a particle physics book?
 
9:46 AM
exactly
just some nice pictures to make the book more enjoyable to look at
 
Maybe because it's not a children book
 
great cover
I did want to give my CTC book this cover*
 
i would read that book
 
Do you like children's books Balarka?
 
9:56 AM
depending on the book, sure
and depending on the children
 
A book of recipes for children would be nice :-)
 
I have a compilation of Russian fairy tales I still recommend pretty much literally anybody. Kayum Tangrykuliev's stories are p good too.
 
Do you mean like
DAS KAPITAL
 
Fantastic book
I also like ze communist manifesto
quick and dirty
 
Does the communist manifesto have photographs and brightly coloured headings?
 
10:04 AM
you can make custom made drawings
the headlines are colored with red
 
is communism a religion?
 
depending on the definition of religion
 
Christian communism is a form of religious communism based on Christianity. It is a theological and political theory based upon the view that the teachings of Jesus Christ compel Christians to support communism as the ideal social system. Although there is no universal agreement on the exact date when Christian communism was founded, many Christian communists assert that evidence from the Bible suggests that the first Christians, including the Apostles, established their own small communist society in the years following Jesus' death and resurrection. As such, many advocates of Christian communism...
 
Last night dream:
 
a cell?
 
10:10 AM
NB The diamonds are already less than 1 pixel wide in this pics, thus I have no idea how to actually drew them all without the whole think looking like a rocky texture
That thing is some kind of pendant, made of purple crystals and with small diamonds all over the rest of it
 
what's the context of the dream?
 
The pendant is called Crystal of Tears. It is a very powerful artifact that is formed by some kind of pure positive emotion. In the dream, a boy tries to save his mother from being killed by fate, and the love manifest itself and crystalised into this artifact
 
cool
 
 
2 hours later…
11:58 AM
@Mithrandir24601 Hey how's it going?
 
 
1 hour later…
1:25 PM
0
Q: The eigenvalue equation and its physical interpretation in the frames of quantum mechanics

DanteI have taken my first course on quantum mechanics, in order to get ready for the Monday test, I am trying to solve the previous year test. One of the points is as in the title, I am going to present my answer and I want to know, whether it is correct and complete. Moreover I would like to read ...

Example of an "am I right" question where the title will mislead you to think it is something deep
 
He hasn't actually stated what the question was. He's just presented his answer and asked whether it's sufficient. How can anyone possibly know, unless they've also seen the exam question?
 
1:40 PM
@JohnRennie I would like to put this to the test
give me some motivated physics students and a month
and a large whiteboard
@Kenshin what is a professeur?
@JohnRennie it's both
if you want to work with the actual Einstein equations it's a mess
if you do other stuff it's better
@Kenshin what does "only in application" mean
 
 
2 hours later…
3:17 PM
@0celo7 nope.jpg :P
So, regarding the tikz question, do you know how to shift arrows right/left? Did you try that?
 
@Danu oops, got distracted and forgot about that
I don't know, no
 
shift left or shift left=1,2,3,4,... whatever you prefer
 
nice, but it's not completely centered on the $N$ now
should I shift the other one right?
can I do half steps?
wonderful, thanks!
 
@Blue Why is p-chloro toluene produced in greater percentages than the ortho-isomer while halogenating benzene?
 
@0celo7 You can do shift lef=1.125pt for all tikz cares :P
 
3:32 PM
@Danu good to know
 
@Blue I would think CH3's +I effect would be increasing the electron density at the ortho position, thereby making it a stronger attacking position for Cl.
 
@0celo7 Custom length specification as well as "step-by-step" input works in essentially all tikz functions
 
@Danu My goal is to never wander far enough from analysis to have to do anything more complicated than the diagram above :)
 
@0celo7 What a terrible thing to say.
Also, you're screwed if you wanna learn the Atiyah-Singer index theorem :p
 
you could just write that diagram on paper and scan it
done and done
 
3:39 PM
@Danu Gilkey has zero commutative diagrams.
 
@BalarkaSen Not if you want to present the document to... anyone important :P
@0celo7 They're still there, implicitly.
 
I wasn't saying they're not important
I'm saying I don't want to typeset them
Important distinction
 
handwritten diagrams are beautiful. those important people will love them
 
@0celo7 fair enough
@BalarkaSen Your trolling is getting pretty old; I'm not going to respond anymore :P
 
@BalarkaSen I went to a sphere packing lecture that was hand written on an iPad pro
 
3:42 PM
You just did, @Danu
win win
 
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