Books on Shelves

Here are the books in my room now:

1. Modern Quantum Mechanics, Sakurai
2. Advanced Quantum Mechanics, Sakurai
3. Classical Mechanics, Goldstein
4. Classical Dynamics, Marion
   
5. Classical Electrodynamics, Jackson
6. The Physics of Stars, Philips
7. Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetodynamic Stability, Chandrasekhar
8. A First Course in String Theory
9. Cosmology, Cole
10. Introduction to Gravity, Hartle
11. Physics of Astrophysics I : Radiation, Shu
12. Physics of Astrophysics II : Gas Dynamics, Shu
13. Introduction to Electrodynamics, Griffith
14. Introductory Statistical Mechanics, Bowley
    

Comments on the ranking

Oh ya, so many visitors come to this blog searching for the ranking of physics graduate schools. Yes, the ranking here is similar to others. After all, ranking are basically a list of schools. I do have some comments on this ranking.

1. This is simply just a list of schools. Don't take the ranking so serious. I think the error of each school's rank can be large as 5.

2. This order biases towards private schools. I do not think public schools like UCs would give you any disadvantage after you finish your PhD.

3. Lower chance for international students for public schools may have been a big problem. But who knows if any of them get some extra fundings.

Also feel free to leave comments and visit again to see what's updated. =)

Ranking of some physics graduate schools

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University
3. California Institute of Technology
4. Harvard University
Princeton University
University of California–Berkeley
7. Cornell University
8. University of Chicago
University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign
10. University of California–Santa Barbara
11. Columbia University
University of Texas–Austin
13. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Yale University
15. University of Maryland–College Park
16. University of California–Los Angeles
University of California–San Diego
University of Colorado–Boulder
University of Pennsylvania
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin–Madison
22. Johns Hopkins University
SUNY–Stony Brook
24. Ohio State University
Pennsylvania State University–University Park
Rutgers State University–New Brunswick
27. Rice University
University of Minnesota–Twin Cities
29. Brown University
Carnegie Mellon University
Duke University
Michigan State University
Northwestern University
University of California–Irvine
35. Boston University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Indiana University–Bloomington
New York University
Purdue University–West Lafayette
University of Arizona
University of California–Davis
University of Florida
University of Rochester
University of Virginia
45. Florida State University
University of California–Santa Cruz
University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill
Washington University in St. Louis
49. Texas A&M University–College Station
50. Case Western Reserve University
CUNY Graduate School and University Center
University of Notre Dame
University of Pittsburgh
University of Southern California
55. Arizona State University
Dartmouth College
Iowa State University
North Carolina State University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
University of Massachusetts–Amherst
University of Oregon
62. Brandeis University
College of William and Mary
University of Illinois–Chicago
University of Iowa
Vanderbilt University
67. Northeastern University
Syracuse University
University of California–Riverside
University of New Mexico
University of Tennessee–Knoxville
University of Utah
Virginia Tech
74. Boston College
Emory University
Louisiana State University–Baton Rouge
Tufts University
University of Connecticut
University of Delaware
University of Georgia
81. Colorado State University
University of Hawaii–Manoa
University of Kansas
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
85. Colorado School of Mines
Kansas State University
Ohio University
Oregon State University
University at Buffalo–SUNY
University of Houston
University of Missouri–Columbia
University of Oklahoma
University of South Carolina
Washington State University

New Genesis

In the beginning God created radiation and ylem. And ylem was without shape or number, and the nucleons were rushing madly over the face of the deep.

And God said: "Let there be mass two." And there was mass two. And God saw deuterium, and it was good.

And God said: "Let there be mass three." And there was mass three. And God saw tritium and tralphium, and they were good. And God continued to call number after number until He came to transuranium elements. But when He looked back on his work He found that it was not good. In the excitement of counting, He missed calling for mass five and so, naturally, no heavier elements could have been formed.

God was very much disappointed, and wanted first to contract the universe again, and to start all over from the beginning. But it would be much too simple. Thus, being almighty, God decided to correct His mistake in a most impossible way.

And God said: "Let there be Hoyle." And there was Hoyle. And God looked at Hoyle… and told him to make heavy elements in any way he pleased.

And Hoyle decided to make heavy elements in stars, and to spread them around by supernovae explosions. But in doing so he had to obtain the same abundance curve which would have resulted from nucleosynthesis in ylem, if God would not have forgotten to call for mass five.

And so, with the help of God, Hoyle made heavy elements in this way, but it was so complicated that nowadays neither Hoyle, nor God, nor anybody else can figure out exactly how it was done.
Amen.

==================================================

In today Geoffrey Burbidge's seminar, he showed a slide of a comment about Fred Hoyle by George Gamow.

HOW TO: Apply US graduate schools (A non-US student's perspective)

Surely this is NOT a complete guide on the topic. But I do want to write something about the whole application process in the view of an international (non-US) student.

Well, interested in graduate schools?

Step 1: Think twice!

Step 2: Find out the right track of your career. I mean, if you are already a final year (or junior/senior) student, you can directly jump into the application process. If not, there are still somethings you can do to enhance your chance of acceptance. The rest of this guide assumes you are still freshman or in second year.

Step 3: Research, research and research...

There are several sites that I highly recommend all of you to read. First two are online forum, which you can have a feeling what people are worrying on the application process:

www.PhysicsGRE.com

www.TheGradCafe.com

The next one is www.gradschoolshopper.com, which contains very comprehensive information about each school, including the statistics of their applicant pool.

Step 4: Save some money (~US$2000) for paying money-eating agent (e.g. ET$ ) for te$t fees and also your prospective school app. fees. After all, they are high risk investment that someone can get rejection by all schools he applies.

Step 5: Join a research group. Really no matter how you are working in the group actually, e.g. even typing in data with any learning, "research" experience is always an important part in the application. After all, graduate school is all about research. It really sounds better if you said you did make your hands dirty.

Step 6: Letters of Recommendation. I think this is a tough topic for international students. Since teachers of international students may not be international recognized, their letters may just sound like from any other unknown person from your country. I don't really have a clue for this, especially if you really cannot find a chance to make connection to the outside world (USA). Sad enough, the letters are also very important.

Step 7: Dont miss the deadlines

Book Review: The Physics of Astrophysics Volume II: Gas Dynamics (Hardcover)

It is fair to say I grew with Astronomy. My dad bought me a small refracting telescope when I was 10. Later when I got into middle school, I went out stargazing very often. Oh well, Astronomy is always related physics in my view. This book is certainly the link between them. I was surprised to see and learn so many new things in book, even I haven't finish it yet. There are 3 parts, first part is an introduction to various physical process, mainly fluid mechanics. The second part is on some wave phenomena. And the last part is on magnetohydrodynamics. I should say this book's level is...beginning graduate. Oh ya, people who loves astronomy since young, have to wait so many years until they really understand what is going on there. Knowing is easy. Four-year-old kid may know there is a Giant Red Spot on Jupiter. However, if you want to find someone in town who actually understand how the Giant Red Spot forms...it would be hard. Anyway, the beauty of our Universe is lying there. This book gives many physical insights to some physics problems, and my final word on the book is "highly recommend for serious learner".

The Atheism Tapes 2 -- Steven Weinberg

Back to basics...

Astrophysics is an very interesting subject to me. Within so many branches, Cosmology is really like a supernova all these years. After I got into college, nearly most of my astrophysics knowledge was growing towards Cosmology. Yes, Cosmology is indeed a vast subject that touches particle physics to general relativity and even string theory. However, astrophysics is not just about cosmology, not just about those big questions of our Universe. When I was visiting a school during my 3rd year of college, I worked in a group of observational cosmology. I was surprised that knowledge of statistics, basic physics about radiation absorption, emission are also very important. Recently, I have been reading Frank Shu's book, Gas Dynamics which contains so much about fluid mechanics, turbulence etc. These are all very important to study about stars and gases. Maybe sometime we do need to stop thinking about those dark energy, dark matter, and spend more time to understand our stars at an even deeper level.

Application Season

It's now November. A scary season of graduate school applications just starts. It seems some schools have changed their application deadline this year, following the changes on GRE Subject test dates. Still, I think people would NOT start their application AFTER the result is released.

Third Post

Graduated school started for one and half months. I felt myself kind of disorganized these days. However, I have several things done. First thing I bought a laptop that is good for my work in the coming years. Second thing is that I found a professor for doing private reading. Better not to name anyone, since people could then find out which school I am and who we are.

The concepts of importance in astrophysics really depends on what school you are. Cosmology, particle astrophysics, neutron stars and black holes, galaxy formation, star formation, planetary rings, binary stars, gravitational waves, star oscillation, quasar, AGN, gamma burst, star burst, cosmic rays...many things to learn and for an entering graduate there are really many many choices. If you only meet professor doing cosmology, you may not even know how solar wind is generated. That's why I tried a kind-of fundamental area to study, fluid mechanics in astrophysics and possibly magnetohydrodynamics...Hard.

Second Post

I did not expect I would write the second post after such a long time. Finally my life in the graduate school started! Although the first few days were all orientations and paper work, I had met some professors. One was for the class that I will be TA for, another was my adviser two years ago.

Now I am a piece of plain white paper. Would it be full of quantum fields with unknown strings and particles, or would it be a box of computer simulated universe, who knows...

Sometime I really think the first two years for search research interest is even more crucial than the oral defense...

First Post

This blog titled as "Not yet a physicist" simply because the author(s) is under physics training but still finding the right path to be one real physicist. For those who find their undergraduate training in physics is not enough, they may find graduate schools as a possible path to success. But the reality is a lot tougher than one thought about "success". One professor teaching mathematical method once said,
"Life is tough."
I think most students will not find physics as an easy subject. So before placing a huge bet (both money and time and career) of your golden years before thirty on a PhD degree, please think twice (per day). Good Luck.