Basically over

So Malaysia is basically over in 20 years.

The relationship between Malaysia and Indonesia has been deteriorating since few years ago due to controversial maid abuse incidents, culture stealing and nationalistic sentiments stirred up by both sides' right extremist.

Investors from overseas have been constantly pulling their investment confident away from Malaysia since the global economics crisis, channeling their funds to Vietnam or Indonesia, which provide cheaper labor costs and more skilled workers.

To tell the truth, we are really in a fucked-up situation. Malaysia is not a cheap manufacturing hub anymore, nor is high-tech industrial center. The country's economics stuck in between, but not improving. We only rely on Petronas to save our ass, once the oil field is dry, we are basically over.

What about relying on neighboring country? Judging on how many times we offended our neighbor, I would say we don't really have a reliable friend in SEA. Singapore looks down on us, Indonesia hates us, Thais don't want to have anything to do with us. Brunei ignores us and we are still having some island dispute with Philippines.

Unless a SEA union ala EU is formed in future, I don't see how our Nusantara region can progress in the future. With the steep competition from EU, rising nation like China, Vietnam and Indonesia, and the introduction of new debt currency in Latin America, we need a more radical policy in economics to attract foreign investors to Malaysia.

The simplest way is to abolish all the racial segregation, all the races supremacy and hegemony against another. Overseas Malaysian would not return to Malaysia not because that the salary is low, but rather the disrespectness of the constitution. Seriously, the country is beautiful, and the food is good. But we her children tarnish everything that she gave to us.

Revision

In theoretical physics, you need to revise everything you have learned, as more advanced books will provide you more insight on the unification of physics. However one does not start reading graduate text straight away when one learns the new field. Here are some of my recommended books for beginners and advanced physicists:

1) Mechanics
For beginner go for the classics like Goldstein (actually this is also difficult) and Nolting. For more geometrical insight one can skip directly to "Classical dynamics, a contemporary approach" from Jose, Saletan. This book even explains what is KdV equations and KAM theorem.

2) Electrodynamics
Avoid Jackson at all cost. For beginners one can understand a lot from Greiner's book. For advanced graduate text, use "High field electrodynamics" from Hartemann. For me classical electrodynamics is stupid in the sense that one needs to deal with vector analysis, which can be simplified with formulation of ED in Differential forms.

3) Quantum mechanics
I like the book from Cohen-Tanoudji a lot, that book clear the missunderstandings that undergraduates might develop for quantum mechanics and introduces the reader to the rigorous formulation of QM. For the expert I would recommend Sakurai's classics. Of course QM is a big field and one should not stop learning it from another perspective like Hilbert space formulation, functional analysis and distribution theory..

4) Statistical mechanics
Greiner excel again in this version. Till now I still did not find any book that can explain stat.mech in a crystal clear, concise form. Once you know the stuff, refer the book from Reichl and Landau for advanced application of Stat.mech.

5) General relativity
If you want to learn GR properly, then jump right into Carroll, after that use Straumann as supplement. The "brick" from MTW is recommended as reference. Avoid Wald unless you want use it against insomia.

6) Geometry, topology and Differential geometry
I used "A modern course in mathematical physics" from Szekeres for all my grad school mathematical knowledge. Once you mastered it, read "Geometry of physics" by Frankel and the book from Nakahara for more insight of geometry. Learning geometry has never been so much fun in my life.

7) Lie groups, group theory
So far I find that it is hard to motivate one to study this subject per se without the physical motivation. The best books so far for this would be "QM: symmetry" from Greiner. For more mathematical side one can use the book from Gilmore and Georgi.

8) Quantum field theory
Peskin Schroeder is probably the classic nowadays. However Ryder and Weinberg also stand up as top contenders in this subject. Note that this is just introduction to QFT, we are not talking about gauge theory and application in solid state.

9) String theory
Skip Zwiebach and go for Becker sister's book. That book I believe is the most up to date and relatively superior than GSW, but slightly easier than Pochinski.

10) Standard model and particle physics
The book from Nachtmann of course, because he is from Heidelberg. :)

Attending these courses

Attending these courses for this semester:

1) Hydrodynamics
2) String theory
3) Quantum field theory 1
4) Advanced topic in particle physics: Probing LHC physics
5) Advanced condensed matter physics
6) An introduction to non-equilibrium field theory
7) Advanced topic in statistical mechanics
8) Super algebra in solid state physics

Teaching:

1) Electrodynamics

Reading:

1) Quantum mechanics: symmetries
2) The geometry of physics
3) Introduction to solid state physics
4) Numerics

K's theoretical minimum

If Landau has it, I also will have it.

Here is my theoretical minimum, that I will master before I graduate:

1) Classical mechanics and chaos theory
2) Electrodynamics and classical field theory
3) Quantum mechanics and atomic physics
4) Statistical mechanics and non-equilibrium dynamics
5) Quantum field theory and gauge theory
6) General relativity and cosmology
7) Condensed matter physics
8) String theory
9) Hydrodynamics
10) Standard model of particle physics

And of course the mathematical minimum:

1) Differential geometry
2) Group theory
3) Numerical analysis
4) Algebraic topology
5) Partial differential equations

For fuck sake

Malaysians are the laziest people I ever seen in my life.

Why does everyone need to hire a maid? And complain so much about the raise of wage?

How can the poor Indonesian maid survive with merely RM 800 per month? This is outrageous, this is modern slavery!

Malaysian, either you pay more or wash your own underwear!

It is coming towards the end

Yes my mini-research project is coming towards the end.

Apparently for the effort and time invested in this hot summer, I guess everything is worth it. I did learn more than in lecture, ok which is good. At least for a future particle physicist/field theorist that was a good start.

Now I am finishing my report and will be submitted to Prof Herrmann. Once finished I believe I will post it somewhere, should I get a space to publish.

Next stop general relativity exam in October. Wish me luck.

Just got my Sakurai's book

So just got my J.J.Sakurai's modern quantum mechanics book from China.

Yes from China.

In fact, if you want to buy any text book nowadays, try out www.abebooks.com first. There you have access to all vendor from all around the world.

Speaking about globalisation huh.

I paid only 20% of the price in Germany. But if you buy books directly from China, it would be way cheaper.

Ups and downs in physics

Just to comment on some courses and the timetable of physics in my Uni. Since I know that I want to be particle physicist anyhow, here I will list out some mistakes that I have made or by Uni.

1. Courses that I should not attend: (Future field theorist/particle physicist take notice)

a) Linear algebra 2 - sure the first part is important, like definition of bilinear form, scalar product and Jordan decomposition, but the second part about polynomial and number theory just don't contribute anything to physics.

b) Stochastics and probability theory - From the first day when the lecturer said: "I am not going to teach you on how to gamble" served already a big blow to my motivation. Axiomatizing probability theory is the most ugliest mathematics form that I ever seen in my entire life. Projector presentation and monotone style just kills off the mood for learning this subject. The only consolation price that I could give to myself is a good score in this subject, other than that please avoid this subject at all course.

c) Informatics 1 - Clearly this course supposes to teach you how to write C++. In the end we learned how to write codes in Mathematica. OMG. I mean, which groups use Mathematica as their main programming language? All particle physicists use only ROOT and C++. In the end is just wasted knowledge and time.

d) Experimental physics 3 and 4 - Prof D.D just ruined everything. Again powerpoint lectures just killed the motivation of students and furthermore, how can you learn quantum mechanics without rigorous mathematics. Atomic physics and molecule, did we have that? Molecular topic was covered in 2 weeks and what have you learn? My tutor who is an expert in atomic physics said some of the material presented in lecture was outdated or already disproved in modern physics. Fortunately I was not in the lecture all the time.

e) Group theory - don't get me wrong, group theory is a wonderful topic. But if it is presented by Prof W.W, then it is a big catastrophy. 17 chapters were planed and only 2 and half of them were completed. No Lie group and E8xE8 and things that sound so cool. The number of attendance tells you how bad the lecture is. In the end I have to relearn everything from Tung's and Gilmore's book.

f) Algebra 1 - Again my biggest mistake to trust the number theorist. Naively I thought that algebra was required in order to study algebraic topology and algebraic geometry. Still it is true that you need to do this but for physicist you only need maybe 10% of it if you want to do string theory. Completely waste of time with field extension and polynomial (again). The only thumbs up is the galois theory, as I believe once in a lifetime you should hear this powerful theory. But after the course, just forget everything and back to reality.

g) Experimental 6 - Solid state physics, no comment as this is by far the WORST lecture I ever attended. Seriously if you know that you are a particle physicist, do you bother?

h) Theoretical physics 4 - Come on statistical physics is one of the most important field in modern physics. But the lecturer just completely KILLED off the subject. I heard that he get a D rating in the evaluation feedback.

2. What went wrong in Uni heidelberg?

First of all, you should teach quantum mechanics rigorously as soon as possible as this is the core of modern subject. How do you expect the students to understand solid state physics, particle physics and atomic physics without first mastering quantum mechanics.

Lack of professor is one of the serious problem in german universities nowadays. Maybe you have heard of protest or Bildungstreik last month, yes we have serious fundamental problem, lack of staffs. That is the problem that plagues at least the math faculty, as they don't have a lot of courses per semester. I believe attending differential geometry in 6th semester is already too late. If you want to do field theory, then I suggest you learn the stuff yourself.

3. Advice for the future (non existant) students of Diplom (bye bye):
If you can turn back time, just study experimental physics by yourself and don't bother about going to lecture. Do 2 theoretical physics lecture per semester and try to do quantum field theory as soon as possible. For future field theorist, make sure you learn differential geometry, group theory and complex analysis as much as you can. If you are a experimetalist please attend numeric courses too.

Hope that helps :)

Courses attended so far...

I put up the course that I have done since 1st semester..upon request.

1. Sem:
-Experimental physics 1 (Mechanics, thermodynamics)
-Mathematical methods for physicist 1 (Calculus)
-Analysis 1 (Real analysis)
-Linear algebra 1 (Group, fields, vector space, map and matrices)
-Inorganic chemistry
-Physics lab 1 practical

2. Sem:
-Experimental physics 2 (Electrodynamics, optics)
-Mathematical methods for physicist 2 (Vector analysis, Fourier transformation)
-Analysis 2 (Calculus in higher dimension)
-Linear algebra 2 (Module, Polynomial, Tensor)
-Lab in inorganic chemistry
-Introduction to quantum mechanics

3. Sem:
-Experimental physics 3 (Quantum mechanics, special relativity)
-Theoretical physics 1 (Classical mechanics)
-Stochatics and probability theory
-Informatics 1 (Mathematica and C, C++)
-Physics lab 2 practical

4. Sem:
-Experimental physics 4 (Atoms and molecules)
-Theoretical physics 2 (Classical electrodynamics and special relativity)
-Advanced lab pratical
-Quantum optics and quantum information
-Role of geometry in classical physics
-Complex analysis 1

5. Sem
-Experimental physics 5 (Particle and nuclear physics)
-Theoretical physics 3 (Quantum mechanics)
-Group theory
-Geometry and topology in physics
-Algebra 1 (Field extension, Galois theory)
-Introduction to gravitation theory
-Complex analysis 2
-Quantum mechanics 2
-Introduction to astronomy and astrophysics 1 and 2

6. Sem
-Advanced particle physics/ Introduction to Standard model
-Experimental physics 6 (Solid state physics)
-Theoretical physics 4 (Statistical physics and thermodynamics)
-Relativistic quantum mechanics
-General relativity
-Differential geometry 1
-Seminar for Mid-sem (quantum mechanics)
-Cosmology

More to come. As you can see things get more and more.

Physical law

I will put here if I can think of any creative things about physics.


Parallel Transport:
Imagine you are late, and your date is waiting for you. Use parallel transport to drag yourself along the earth´s surface.

Principle of minimal action:
used to calculate the minimum shots you need to shoot birds.

Blackhole:
used as a rubbish bin in future. Becareful not to be sucked inside.

Spontaneous symmetry breaking:
for entertainment purpose, to balance a ball on top of mexican hat is hard.