Thread by @mcnees

Steven Weinberg has passed away. He was a towering figure of 20th and 21st century physics and I admired him tremendously. I read “The First Three Minutes” to pieces, joined his research group at UT-Austin, learned Cosmology from him, graded his courses, read drafts of his books.

“The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.” — Steven Weinberg

My favorite popularizations of cosmology, whether Norse or modern, all begin with the story of Ginnugagap, Ymir, and the cow Auðumbla.

Last night and today I’ve been re-reading bits and pieces of some of my favorite papers and books by Steven Weinberg. Of course, there is quite a catalog to choose from — he had a long career and was very prolific. I thought I’d list a few here; real gems that anyone can access.

(Not trying to be comprehensive here, this is literally just a list of some of the things I’ve read all or part of since late last night when I learned of his passing.)

First, “What is Quantum Field Theory, and What Did We Think It Is?”
A short, personal history of the development of quantum field theory and a lovely explanation of our modern understanding of QFTs as Effective Field Theories.
arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/970…

There is a remark in that talk (it’s a write up of a talk he gave at a conference) that I think is always buzzing around in the back of my head when I’m preparing a class or writing a paper.

I heard him say something to this effect many times when I was a grad student, and for reasons I will explain some other time (it’s a funny story, but I don’t want to go on a tangent) it really stuck with me.

Next, “The Cosmological Constant Problem.”
Weinberg’s classic review of the catastrophic mismatch between the amount of vacuum energy measured by cosmologists and astronomers, and the predictions made by our quantum mechanical theories of particle physics.
repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/hand…

Imo this remains one of the most intriguing problem in all of physics. The paper was published (Reviews of Modern Physics, January 1989) about ten years before the discovery of the accelerating Hubble expansion likely driven by a minuscule positive vacuum energy.

“Living in the Multiverse”
An opening talk for a conference in which Weinberg confronts the String Landscape and its anthropic implications. “We lose some, and win some.”
arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/051…

One time, when I was in grad school, I asked Weinberg about some point from the anthropic discussion in the 1989 review paper. He gave me a funny look and said that people my age shouldn’t be flirting with anthropic reasoning, we should try to come up with real solutions.

“The First Three Minutes”
Mentioned above, one of my favorite books. My very tattered copy is on the verge of giving up the ghost. I re-read the first few chapters last night. Just a joy every time.

This is wonderful.
vimeo.com/578891190