In Theory: Is theoretical physics in crisis?
Oce Eeco stashed this in Physics
"When researchers discovered the Higgs boson in 2012, it was a huge moment of achievement. It showed theorists had been right to look towards the Standard Model for answers about our Universe. But then the particle acted just like the theorist’s said it would, it obeyed every rule they predicted. If it had acted just slightly differently it would have raised many questions about the theory, and our universe. Instead, it raised few questions and gave no new clues about to where to look next.
In other words, the theorists had done too good a job."
“We are still in an uncertain period, previously we were uncertain as to how the Standard Model could be completed. Now we know it is pretty much complete so we can focus on the questions beyond it, dark matter, the future of the universe, the beginning of the universe, little things like that”
"With the discovery of the Higgs, there’s been a shift in this relationship, with theoreticians not necessarily leading the way. Instead, experiments look for data to try and give more evidence to the already proposed theories, and if something new is thrown up theorists scramble to explain and make sense of it."
“What happens in the future largely depends on what the LHC finds in its second run,” (this month) “So if it turns out that there’s no other new physics and we’re focusing on understanding the Higgs boson better, that’s a different possible future for physics than if LHC Run 2 finds a new particle we need to understand.”
“It has often been said that it is difficult to make predictions; especially about the future. It couldn't be more true today in particle physics. This is what makes the present so exciting. Looking back in the history of physics you'll see that moments of crisis and confusion were invariably followed by great revolutionary ideas. I hope it's about to happen again”
"Richard Feynman, one of the most famous theoretical physicists once joked, <<Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.>>"
Stashed in: Higgs Boson!, Physics, Richard Feynman, Science People, Science Jobs, Science Adventure
Actually, is theoretical physics in crisis?
Seems like there's still a lot of interest.
And lol at that Feynman quote.
The thing is there haven't been new fundamental theory since Relativity in 1915 and Quantum Physics in the 1930'. Since it all has been development, experimental and observational confirmations.
The main hope for me is that these two aren't compatible when they meet, so there's something bigger to find to unify them.
Well then I hope that, too.
Do you think they will meet anytime soon?
I don't think so. Probably need a new Einstein.
Are there any people alive who could be a new Einstein?
I don't know, not gonna be easy to start 3 new physics fields with 3 articles.
At this point we'd settle for one new physics field with 1 article.
4:13 AM May 20 2016