lore accurate physics major

min || 23 (she/they) || physics postgrad

[min-vs-physics]

intro to a lore accurate physics grad

updated intro for 2025 :3. a lot of things stayed the same, some things are different, still fighting physics yada yada yada

name: min age: 22 occupation: masters student major: (theoretical) PHYSICS

more about me:

i am an indian intl theoretical physics masters student based in the uk

i was an undergrad in the states (majoring in physics/math).

still interested in high energy theory, but feeling things out in my masters year

i accidentally majored in math in undergrad and now it's part of my personality (i am very bad at math)

more about me when im NOT doing physics:

im addicted to fun little bevvies. working without smth to sip is criminal

my current concern is finding a time to schedule my one piece book club across four different timezones.

having a 2016 revival rn (thirteen year old me was right about everything ever)

i have infinite kuromi stickers idk what to do with them.

learning how to draw so that i can draw my own shitposts

free book rec-- three body problem

my inbox/dms are open for anything from questions about physics, to hating on physics. if you ask me a question about my particles i will become an unskippable cutscene.

i still love what i do, and i still love complaining about what i do, so that's all this blog still is.

[ciqqy]

I will lock in tomorrow like nobody has ever locked in before

[ciqqy]

[duskmancer]

why am i writing three papers at once please for the love of god let me finish a single project aaaaaaaahhhhhh

[markovchaingang]

physicists: think they know enough to be an authority in other fields

chemists: don't think they know enough to be an authority in other fields

biologists: aren't even sure they know enough to be an authority in their own firld

mathematicians: don't understand why you seem to think they'd ever want to leave the beautiful and pure realm of numbers and have anything to do with any other field

[cauchyfeelings]

All math jokes aside (for now), we're generally first taught to "solve" problems in math and I think that may be where math loses a lot of people because the intuition doesn't come easily. It's plug and chug and input and output and you don't really get to "understand" the nature of it.

As you continue (if you should choose to do so) math becomes more abstract because it's not necessarily about plugging and chugging and solving (although yes you do need to solve it lmao). It's more about how to visualize and see the "nature" of the problem, how to see the entire system as a whole. This is where representation and structure start to matter because now it's about perspective. Understanding the system through different lenses.

You intentionally have to choose a space, coordinate system, etc. to "uncover" the structure because different representations illustrate and emphasize different properties.

We must be intentional with how we choose to "manipulate" the system because we're not just trying to "solve" something we're trying to understand what's actually happening. And this is where you have to be patient because the math might not come out clean or sometimes it doesn't work out on the first try etc. It might be a bit frustrating but math requires patience because it reveals itself slowly.

And for me personally this is where I find the beauty in math.

Some might not have the patience and might get frustrated because what they tried didn't work out or it becomes too complicated or simply because it just takes too long (I know I still get frustrated as well). But if you look at math as a relationship you'd understand how patience and being intentional and looking at different perspectives is so valuable.

Understanding anything deeply whether it's math people relationships etc requires patience intention and openness. And it's in that understanding that makes it beautiful.

Heck to take it one step further I argue it's in the endurance and slowness that you start to fall in love with things. I believe this is why modern day hustle culture and grind and all that overlooks slowness because it wants what is quick hitting and dopamine inducing only to feel unresolved and on the search of "whats next" rather than staying long enough to uncover "whats deeper".

Sometimes love is just staying.

[taylorstheorem]

math majors and our questionable habit of calling real analysis anal. 'I'm so cooked by anal' 'I'm doing anal homework' 'anal exam'. yeahhhhh keep these going I need to make my non-math friends question their life decisions

[leibnizstan]

Prof today draws a diagram on the board, stares at it for several minutes, erases it, re-draws it with the arrows reversed… then ends class 8 minutes early as he continues to stare at the (still incorrect) diagram. There’s hope for me in academia after all.

[xrisalifourfouro]

University is so funny, you get to sit through challenging classes and learn about complex subjects that have been studied by the greatest minds that ever lived. And then on the bus ride home you overhear someone talking about how they put a plastic bowl in the oven

[min-vs-physics]

hey min!! technically-speaking, i passed my particles class last year (physics undergrad) but i feel like i've forgotten just about everything (wtf is a CKM matrix again!?) :( as the resident particles guy (gender neutral) (tm), do you have any recs on recs on ressources/textbooks/particular funky overview/seminal papers i should read to remember? (we got from rutherford to roughly all the way up to QCD and higgs mechanism if that helps with the scope)

wtf is a CKM Matrix indeed...

i mainly relied on my lecture notes for particle physics ngl. i didnt even know we had a prescribed textbook until p late into the class oops. BUT, as the resident particle guy of course i have plenty of resources on particle physics.

I'm going to start with general undergrad level resources:

G.L. Kane, Modern Elementary Particle Physics: this was the nominal textbook for my undergrad particle physics class

D.J. Griffiths, Introduction to Elementary Particles: not the biggest fan of this one but it does the job for a lot of people so ill put it in

buttttt if you're interested in learning QFT, a lot more stuff becomes accessible. i would say the following textbooks are more suited for a standard model class than an intro to particle physics, but i can't tell the difference these days... getting too qftpilled i fear

QFT-Pilled Standard-Model-Maxxing:

T.P. Cheng and L.F. Li, Gauge Theories of Elementary Particle Physics: by the recommendation of a prof i have at my masters institution

D. Bailin and A. Love, Introduction to Gauge Theories: ive been introduced to these guys from their susy/string theory book but i think this one is p good too!

M. Schwartz, QFT & The Standard Model: i think this is such a great modern textbook for qft and the such. however, i am a traditionalist…

M. Peskin & D. Schroeder, Introduction to Quantum Field Theory: emotional support qft textbook

there are many online resources i rely on heavily for research and review. i cannot finish this post without giving them a shout out!

When you feel like clicking stuff and keep clicking stuff:

Particle Data Group: navigating the site is such a nightmare, but this is where the latest measurements of every particle physics ever. also includes great reviews for specific particle physics topics!

TASI Lectures: now these are more advanced topics, but a great resource if you have something specific you want to go into more detail

David Tong's Lecture Notes: how can i be a theoretical physics student without mentioning these!

CERN Document Server: there’s just so much to say about this so I’m just linking the whole thing so you can look around and see what’s useful (so many lectures, tutorials, papers)

i might have gone overboard with the resources! idk how technical we wanna get. so here's a peace offering:

And for the iPad kid, perhaps a video with their lunch?

PBS Spacetime, The Fundamental Forces & The Standard Model: comfort vids when i feel like throttling my subfield, but really well put together

Fermilab's Don Lincoln: can't finish a particle physics post without mentioning fermilab!

Veritasium, Your Mass is NOT from the Higgs Boson: oldie but goodie

im working on a separate post for the seminal papers in particle physics, so keep an eye out for that! sorry for not including that in this :// but i needed to split this up bc it was taking longer than expected to compile the papers (i keep thinking of new ones to add!)

of course, if there's a specific topic you're curious about, im happy to answer your questions to the best of my ability and point you in the direction of more resources!

apologies for taking so long to get to ur ask! finals have been going on forever :((( i just had my standard model final so writing this up was a great treat for me!

[marigold-22]

Analysts will be like “I am trying to make progress on the navier stokes equations because it would have a serious impact on applied math and physics”

And algebraists will be like “hoo hoo hoo, my name is Goblin Wizardman do you like my cubes? I call them the little k-cubes operad, also I hate capitalism and the monarchy.”

[errant-heron]

the arXiv is recruiting a CEO as they are becoming an independent organization. they want someone with 'leadership experience in an academic or nonprofit institution… such as online publishing'; 'experience with organizations reliant on volunteers'; 'a proven track record of leading… high-performing teams who are experts in their fields'; and 'a demonstrated commitment to and experience advocating for open science'.

the answer is obvious. no one is more qualified. we should nominate Anna to be the CEO of the arXiv.

[endlessnightskyshoutsback]

so like. was anyone gonna tell me that if you consider the universe as a big system and calculate all the independent sub-lagrangians of all it's components you can have. then you can get. The Lagrangian of the entire fucking universe which gives how everything ever interacts with each other or was i supposed to find that out myself on a random friday

[min4le]

Everytime I see this feynman diagram i think it would be such a cute hairclip its so cute

[augmentedpolls]

Light

It’s a particle

It’s a wave

Results

Voting ended onMay 20

You can only pick one!

[josephbrassey]

“Haha remember when murder-hornets were gonna be a thing? What a nothingburger.”

Yes, because the Washington state government activated like a sleeper-cell and ruthlessly, systematically hunted them down and annihilated them.

“Y2K came to nothing amirite?”

Yes because an army of software engineers working around the clock, losing sleep, and busting ass till the last minute prevented it from happening.

“Remember the hole in the ozone layer?”

You mean the one that was fixed through rigorous world wide government action?

One of the root problems of our society is a refusal or inability by media to articulate that all those “it’s gonna be an apocalypse” disasters were not disasters because we collectively did something about them.

The good news is this is actually quite correctable. I maintain my firm belief that we as humans are capable of solving almost all of our problems, when we decide to do so.

And I still think that’s going to happen. I don’t know when or how, but I do know that abandoning hope won’t help bring it about.

And I refuse to let the cynics own a chunk of my heart.

[gudamor]

Happy Smallpox Eradication Day

[ceruleanheaven]

how to become good at everything no practice no effort no motivation no passion no talent fast free

[autistobrat]

this too shall pass but the fuck was that for