Hi, How can I get started on reading research papers on mathematical

[zaher...@yahoo.com]

[[Mod. note -- Please limit your text to fit within 80 columns,
preferably around 70, so that readers don't have to scroll horizontally
to read each line. I have manually reformatted this article. -- jt]]

Hi, How can I get started on reading research papers on mathematical
and theoretical physics? (math-ph and ph-th in ArXiv) I know
mathematical methods e.g green functions , special functions ) and
some pure math e.g Algebraic topology and differential geometry ,
complex analysis and quantum field theory . How can I find an open
problem that's simple enough to be able to solve . When I try to
readd papers it sounds all greek

[Rich L.]

Modern physics has so many arcane corners with very specialized and
complicated theories that it is typical to have the problem you are
having. I too cannot read and make sense of most of the papers I find,
and I've been studying physics for over 40 years now. My advice, for
what it is worth, is to pick a subject that is particularly interesting
to you and search for not just one, but several text books on that
subject. Then read lots of papers and try to get whatever ideas and
concepts you can from each. Eventually you will start to put it all
together and more and more of what you read will be comprehensible.

Even then, however, you should realize that a significant fraction of
what is published barely makes sense to other physicists! Either the
ideas are so poorly expressed that it is difficult or impossible to
divine the intention, or the logic is flawed. Don't expect it all to
make sense.

Good luck on this, and if you figure out a better way to do it, please
let me know!

Rich L.

[Puppet_Sock]

On Apr 29, 11:00=A0am, "Rich L." <ralivings...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
[snips]

> My advice, for
> what it is worth, is to pick a subject that is particularly interesting
> to you and search for not just one, but several text books on that

> subject. =A0Then read lots of papers and try to get whatever ideas and
> concepts you can from each. =A0Eventually you will start to put it all

> together and more and more of what you read will be comprehensible.

The advice to "pick a subject" is well taken.

The advice to get some good text books and get some basics is
also well taken. Some times you can find good book deals if
you google around for used book sellers and like.

I would say that it is also important to work through a bunch
of example calculations. That is, do the homework. It is all
very nice to read the words. But you won't really understand
things unless you can calculate stuff.

Most of the time there is a wide gap between textbooks and
what researchers are busy working on.

One thing that helps with this is review articles.
These are articles that survey the field and give the
"standard lore" coming back from the frontier. One such is
Physics Reports, but there are others. When I was learning
gauge theory and Lie algebra and such, I had several
Physics Reports that got rather heavily worn.
Socks

[Alfred Einstead]

On Apr 29, 12:05 am, zahero_2...@yahoo.com wrote:
> Hi, How can I get started on reading research papers on mathematical
> and theoretical physics? (math-ph and ph-th in ArXiv) I know
> mathematical methods e.g green functions , special functions ) and
> some pure math e.g Algebraic topology and differential geometry ,
> complex analysis and quantum field theory . How can I find an open
> problem that's simple enough to be able to solve . When I try to
> readd papers it sounds all greek

The papers sound a lot less greek if you're the one writing them, then
it does if you're the one reading them.

Therefore, logic dictates you should carefully and with open eyes
write down everything you read and, preferably, expand on it, fill in
the details, correct its mistakes or redo the analysis.

Having been the one who wrote it, it will then look less greek to you
than it would to someone who only read it.

This works with Greek too (and, going by experience, Russian too. Ya
ponimayu dva sto slova (Russian slova, that is) to transcribe to Latin
letters.)

[Gregor Scholten]

zaher...@yahoo.com wrote:

> Hi, How can I get started on reading research papers on mathematical
> and theoretical physics? (math-ph and ph-th in ArXiv) I know
> mathematical methods e.g green functions , special functions ) and
> some pure math e.g Algebraic topology and differential geometry ,
> complex analysis and quantum field theory . How can I find an open
> problem that's simple enough to be able to solve .

so, you are not a professional researcher at a university or some
institute, but rather a hobby physicist? Sad to say, I guess there won't
be any chance for you to find a problem of current research activity
that you would be able to solve.

If you follow a more realistic aim, like reading papers just for
interest, a good advice should be to read some standard literature about
the corresponding topics at first, to gather some basic knowledge.

[Michael Welle]

Hi,

Gregor Scholten <g.sch...@gmx.de> writes:
[...]

> If you follow a more realistic aim, like reading papers just for
> interest, a good advice should be to read some standard literature about
> the corresponding topics at first, to gather some basic knowledge.

there are different opinions what standard literature is ;), so I
wouldn't mind to see a list here.

Regards
hmw