I thought of writing up a short fiction story along the lines of
Futures’ stories in Nature. But, Damn… it’s hard just to come up with something, forget about it being
Good! So I thought I’ll take up an abandoned project by
PJ: to ‘publish’ quotes of Prof.
Peter van Nieuwenhuizen
from his QFT,
SUSYGY
& String classes. These are quotes as they were copied in my notebook
during these classes or later from memory. They may not always be accurate
word-by-word but within their context, they capture the relevant sentiment
exactly (as is commonly said in certain circles: भावनाओं Bhavanaon को ko समझो
samjho! [Translation: Understand the feelings!]). I am feeling too lazy to
give the context for all these quotations so if some quote seems to have
conflicting meanings, take the less ‘controversial’ one to be true! Here we
go…
=>It is well-known to those who know it well.
=>It is not well-known that it is well-known.
=>It is known that there are no bound states but how it’s known is not
known!
=>If you have a differential equation, you try to solve it!
=>So, Is the world based on Solitons? Mine Is!
=>It gets so deep that I no longer understand it. Though, I’ve also written
a paper about it; on good days, I understand it and on bad days, I give it as
a homework!
=>[Early stages in N=2 SYM monopoles’ calculations:]
1. General wisdom is wrong. (My paper first in this field!)
2. Cheat to prove M=Z but at least it’s Inventive Cheating!
3. Say I give up: These are honest people but you cannot write papers with
that!
=>Ask two proponents of opposing camps and you go to get a cup of coffee.
(The relations are not that good afterwards!)
=>There is a way you can write 16: 4x4. It’s not difficult, it’s just a lot
of writing!
=>In higher (11) dimensions the gamma matrices are not 4-by-4 but
more-by-more!
=>Witten theorem: Total derivatives on fermions do not contribute.
=>Shakespeare theorem: What’s in a name?
=>Professors: More learned they are, more theorems they know, less true
they are!
=>Very few people are in this area. Hope it remains that way!
=>If Higgs is not found, Nature is not so nice!
=>[Dim.reg.by.Dim.red.] He refuses to look at this problem. This is one way to solve problems.
=>Nobody doubts now that we live in 10-D!
=>Anomalies in rigid symmetry: Field theory is all right but physics is
bad!
=>Something changes in your life after you do a 2-loop calculation.
=>Anomaly times Anomaly is very anomalous but it is still there!
=>It is a good exercise to see how difficult it is!
=>A good theorist is always flexible.
Gell-Mann
is very good! [Quarks -> No Quarks -> Yes Quarks]
=>Best if you understand both & worst if you understand neither.
=>Wess
&
Zumino: 1 paper for 10 topics; Ordinary Physicists: 10 papers for 1 topic!
=>Kaluza
was a mathematician (a theorist). How do you prove that? He did not know how
to swim. So he bought a book which 'taught' swimming. After reading that book,
he could swim!
=>8-D: When you are confused what to do with your life!
=>I’m on a different Riemann sheet. I’ll come back now.
=>Ha…i excels in no examples but only general theory; My notes excel in no
general theory but only examples; If you take intersection, you are lost!
=>Wrong paper by me led
BV
to the right stuff!
=>If I stress everything, it’s stressful.
=>Deeper than deep; Maybe deeper even for nature!
=>0 (Zero) is always deep. There’s a reason behind it.
=>Either you are very famous or you made an error (or both)!
=>Stay away from
K_n(x).
=>You can make it so complex that it looks profound! (longer & clearer)
=>Definition rules out the question!
These are almost all of the quotes of PvN I have recorded till now. The
remaining ones are quite ‘controversial’ and he has explicitly tagged them
with ‘these should not leave this classroom’! So that’s all for now. Wait, it
seems the word count has not yet reached a respectable number. So now, I’d
like to write my own random thoughts (lets refrain from calling these quotes!)
since it’s my blog post to begin with and to end with, I write one (and only
one) post in one month! Also, where else would you get to know my thoughts
(random or not) unless you subscribe to ‘The Dharman Show’! Here we go again…
A) Definitions (There was such an exercise in English Grammar course in class
IX!):
=>Illusions: Something that is and isn’t!
=>Misconceptions: Something that does but doesn’t work!
=>Misunderstandings: Something that is and isn’t right!
=>Overheard: When you are there!
=>Misheard: When you are but not there!
=>Unheard: When you are not quite there yet!
=>Sketchbook: What
Sora
holds!
=>Condescension: When ascent descends!
=>Death: Which scares less than waiting for someone!
B) Status Messages (These are inspired by some half/dim-witted status messages
by one of my literally ‘love-struck’
brother!):
=>How can one be so dumb that one’s classification as a living being comes
under scrutiny (forget about being a human being)?
[My bro wait here, Others may continue past the right bracket below: This may
seem like a literal attack on You(r sense & sensibility) but I assure You,
it is not!]
=>Why should one be afraid of one’s own maturity?
[To my Bro again, Others may continue past the right bracket below: This may
seem like a literal attack on You(r sense of maturity) but I assure You, It
Is!]
=>It takes courage to be a coward!
[Bro wait again, Others may continue past the right bracket below: This may
seem like a literal attack on You(r sense of courage) but I assure You, IT IS
NOT!]
C) Phrases (Whatever…):
=>Google Translator
Magic: ‘お っぱい’ gets translated to ‘Your Farewell Dinner’; Remove the space
after first character and ‘おっぱい’ translates to ‘Boobs’; Or shift the space
behind second character to have ‘おっ ぱい’ translated as ‘Oops Bra’; and you
can keep on playing...
=>Variable constants (a,b,c,…), Constant variables (x)!
=>R(ight)=W(rong)+C(orrections). If you are wrong by a large factor, then
R=W(1+C/W) –> R=W for all practical purposes!
(Adapted from a talk by
Dr. Robert Panoff)
Since, it has been proved now that it does not matter if you are Right or
Wrong, I’ll leave you with some more insightful
Quotations.
