BBQ & Party!

The examinations are finally over, altough some unfortunate friends of mine have their last one today. That means it's time for the end of the year social events. The kick of is tonight, with the science faculty barbeque, organised by the student fraternity, followed by the VUB end of the year party. It's outdoors. So help me hope the weather will be better then the last few days...

Pictures and spicey stories will follow later.

D.

Shady rumours

Shady rumours are stalking the hallways...something about moving the department to another building and a new office for little old me...time will tell...

In other news, good times ahead as I now have a full assistantship! I was only part-time this year, meaning less teaching but also less money (obviously). This means I'll be teaching freshmen (urgh...) labs (aaargh...) to biology majors (abandon ship!!) next semester.

Just kidding, I'm looking forward to it and no mistake. But first it will be the sweet, sweet summer or research.

D.

Bored

Weekends suck now.

Most of my friends are still studying, so while those lucky bastards are enjoying themselves doing exams I'm stuck here with nothing much to do. Ok, that sounded bad and if people want to slap me now I understand.

It still remains so that it's annoying to have almost everyone you know being very preoccupied. World of Warcraft is an option, but that gets boring after some time. So I do some housework, read a book or two.

Come to think of it, this post is also extremely boring. Fitting.

D.

Progress!

Today is a good day!

When browsing the interwebs the back of my mind was apparently working. I've been stuck on a certain computation for quite a while. Suddenly, I get an idea! I spurted to my desk and started to work it out. It made sense, and it actually made me able to complete a good chunck of the computation. Not only that, I also made a schematic of how I think it should be completed. That will require some extra work though, and I need to brush op on my charactaristic classes first.

This is the hard part to explain to people who do your average 9-5 job, or even other scientistist who work on more experimental or practical matters. It's hard as a theoretist to sit behind your desk everyday, trying to work something out. As a rule, I tend to avoid that. Sometimes I just mess about to see how a certain mathematical structure handles "in the field", but often your just staring at the paper waiting for the next inspired thought to arrive. Once you get that, you can actually start grinding away at the problem but before that you're basically in the wilderniss without a map. I expect this gets better once you get more experienced, but my youthful self is lost most of the time.

So when people notice me apparently not doing any work, it's just because my hindbrain is actually doing it WHILE I AM APPARENTLY TALKING TO YOU.

Cheers,

Dimi

Tomorrow's seminars

Tomorrow morning seminar at the Université Libre de Bruxelles is

An E_9 multiplet of BPS states by Laurent Houart (ULB)

"In the quest for a formulation of M-theory, the existence of E11 and E10 hidden symmetries could possibly play an important role. Here we will assume the existence of this E11 algebraic structure and explore some of its consequences. We will construct an infinite multiplet of BPS states for 11D supergravity. All these solutions are related by U-dualities realised via E9 Weyl transformations in the regular embedding E9 in E10, E10 in E11. The way the solutions are constructed is giving a hint on the meaning of this symmetry through the existence of a dual formalism. We finally comment on the significance of theses results beyond the realm of BPS solutions."

Cool. Ever since getting a few lectures on Lie groups last year I've been fascinated by them. I remember my advisor commenting jokingly on "Brout, Englert and other tough guys at the ULB who handel groups like E_9, or bigger.". Should be intersting then.

Grading

Grrr...

Just as I discovered a nice couple of talks on the early days of string theory (courtesy of Not Even Wrong), I need to get of my computer and do something that every grad students dreads...grading. More specifically, the grading on the freshman labs of Erasmus University College (where I teach part-time) need finishing up.

Oh well. Can't be helped.

-Dimi

We start again

I know...I know...

It's been a while. To tell the truth, I've been rather burned out with the whole deal. Physics, research, teaching...

But now is the time to start afresh! Teaching duties have ceased till september, so I will now have time to do all those things I usually had little time for : research, gardening, working out and the likes.

So watch this space. It will get filled again.

String-Theory on Calabi-Yau Manifolds

Now why didn't I find this before?
The last few weeks/months have been spenting playing around with the geometrical aspects of physics. I'm really considering making it the leitmotif of my PhD thesis, the one that will be written in the far...far...future.

Anyway, for some reason it took me this long to stumble across this

String Theory on Calabi-Yau Manifolds

Author is none other than that well-known populariser op String Theory, Brian Greene. It's a very accessible account on how Calabi-Yau's (those fancy six-dimensional manifolds you keep hearing about when discussing compact extra dimensions) actually get (or got, it's rather old) used in String Theory. He gives a lighting overview of the geometrical stuff, so some previous experience with differential geometry is adviced, but it's very readable. I'm glad I found this.

Have fun,

D.

It's green!

Ah, after a long week full of hard work I can finally sit at home and relax a little... NOT!

I have a tradition with a good friend of mine to celebrate St-Patrick's day, and so help me I will. There goes the weekend...

Next week, I'll post some titbit's about my research to make up for it. Promised.

The week of a maybe not so typical grad student

Ever wonder how the "working week" of a (maybe not so) typical grad student looks like? I'll give you mine as a case study.

MONDAY

Vowed to get up early to do some research. Eventually got to the VUB at noon. Rest of the afternoon spent grading lab reports due the following day. Finished the day lamenting the fact that no research was done.

TUESDAY

Spent most of the day (this being from 8am to 5pm) in the lab TA'ing. Figured the lack of a lunch break would at least help keep calorie intake down. Came home at 8pm exhausted, wondering if this how people with a real job feel everyday. Happy to be a grad after all

WEDNESDAY

Planned on going to two seminars. Got an idea while shaving. Spent most of the day at home working it out. Extatic by the end of the day due to marginal progression of research. Depressed 20 minutes later at the idea of how slowly it is going and how much I still have left to learn before I can say anything meaningful about it. Dinner with friends who convinced me to go to the local bar for a party.

THURSDAY

Came to the conclusion that two hours sleep is not enough, and that women + emotions + lots alcohol = bad combination. Most of the afternoon spent giving and getting a pep talk to/from a good friend, who came to the same conclusion (only substitute men for women in her case). Evening spent playing World of Warcraft

FRIDAY (today as it were)

Got up, thinking what needed to be done for the second year lab I need to teach this afternoon. Got the impression that a blog update was overdue.

At least the weekend will be fun (I hope). A friend of mine has a job as a stewardess for a train company that organises ski trains to Austria. She managed to secure a place for me on this weekend's train, so we'll do a quick citytrip to Innsbruck.

Cheers,

Dimi