The second step, post-doctoral experience, usually requires traveling to a specialized facility and learning how to use physics theories and math to predict observations. Common choices are high energy physics facilities, like particle accelerators, and astronomical observatories. Once accepted to a post-doctoral program, the next two years will be packed with applied physics and publications. Every new observation that is made will need to be interpreted and submitted to several academic journals.
This step may need to be repeated many times to get hired full-time as a mathematician or applied physicist. To become a theoretical physicist, getting work experience is the hardest step and often comes from several post-doctoral programs. The other option is to be hired as a full-time mathematician or applied physicist. This option applies to any field of study but does require an extensive knowledge of using math and physics to solve problems in new ways.
Banks, shipping companies, and universities are some options that display the variety of work experience available to those qualified.
In my work, I usually start with a particular theory and then explore its implications. If the theory is complete, you can do your calculations and tell an interesting story. But sometimes the theory might be incomplete. This is where artistry might be required; you have to be creative and construct a new theory.
We write down equations and create mathematical models to formalize our ideas about how black holes behave. Equations are the language we have for communicating ideas or intuitions about how a system works. There are two sides to every story: there are the words, the intuition, and there are the equations, the math. I think of an intuitive picture for how a system works. Then, in order to convince others that my idea is correct I have to capture it using an equation; I present the equation, showing what every term represents, and relate it to an intuitive understanding of a black hole, for example.
A model has to be self-consistent, and it has to tell a plausible physical story that agrees with prior discoveries.
These discussions are really important for establishing our goals and next steps. The work itself is writing down and solving equations that tell us the consequences of our models and intuitions.
A lot of that is done with paper and pencil, with the aid of computer programs. You need to figure out what equations you should try to solve; they can be quite complicated, so you want to have confidence that the equation you are trying to solve is meaningful. One thing that sets us apart is that, while we are happy to study the actual universe that we live in, we also enjoy studying other universes.
These other universes have different laws of nature, and they may have different numbers of spatial dimensions. But there is a mathematical basis for studying other universes, and the details of those different universes are essential to understanding more basic principles of physics. When modeling other kinds of universes, it is not true that anything goes, which is why we think that what we are doing is still relevant. There is a misconception that we can simply make things up.
Is there anything you would tell people interested in becoming a theoretical physicist? Theoretical physics is full of surprises. You might think that a problem is really hard to solve, but then one day you get a moment of clarity and you can write up your results.
It is truly a field of exploration. This interview with David Kolchmeyer was conducted and edited for space and clarity by Malinda J. McPherson in October Malinda J. Cover image by WikiImages from Pixabay. This piece is part of our special edition on the day-to-day lives of researchers working in many different fields of science.
Are you interested in learning about a different type of scientist? I know exactly what should be taught to the beginning student. The names and topics of the absolutely necessary lecture courses are easy to list, and this is what I have done below.
It is my intention to search on the web where the really useful papers and books are, preferably downloadable as well. This way, the costs of becoming a theoretical physicist should not exceed much the price of a computer with internet connection, a printer, and lots of paper and pens. Unfortunately, I still have to recommend to buy text books as well, but it is harder to advise you here; perhaps in a future site.
The subjects listed below must be studied. Any omission will be punished: failure. Try alternative approaches, as many as you can. You will discover, time and again, that really what those guys did indeed was the smartest thing possible. Do them. Try to reach the stage that you discover the numerous misprints, tiny mistakes as well as more important errors, and imagine how you would write those texts in a smarter way. I can tell you of my own experiences. I had the extreme luck of having excellent teachers around me.
That helps one from running astray. It helped me all the way to earn a Nobel Prize. I am going to try to be your teacher. It is a formidable task. I am asking students, colleagues, teachers to help me improve this site.
It is presently set up only for those who wish to become theoretical physicists, not just ordinary ones, but the very best, those who are fully determined to earn their own Nobel Prize.
If you are more modest than that, well, finish those lousy schools first and follow the regular routes provided by educators and specialized -gogues who are so damn carefully chewing all those tiny portions before feeding them to you.
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