This year was the first in a long time that I’ve taught at Mathcamp full time, and I’ve just posted notes for two of the classes I taught there this summer.
If you’re one of the very small number of people who are still interested in the quantum field theory article I’ve been promising for years, I have good news: I have actually, finally written most of the first post, and I anticipate having it done soon! More news on that when it’s closer to done.
I’m pretty sure my audience here is small and mostly already knows this, but just in case I’m wrong: the video game I’ve been working on since 2012 has finally been released! Right now it’s only available for Windows (Mac and Linux versions are likely coming pretty soon) and you can get it right here on Steam. This has been a labor of love for the four of us who’ve been working on it and we’re pretty proud of what we’ve managed to put together. If you like puzzle games, we think you’ll really like this one.
You can also follow us on Twitter and/or join our Discord server.
In other news, I’m still tutoring, and I’m going to be returning to Mathcamp this summer as academic co-coordinator. It’s been a long time since I’ve published any expository articles on this site, and I’m not sure how much longer it’s going to be. I’m still planning to do a couple on quantum field theory, but it’s been much harder to find the time to work on it than I thought. If you’re still following that series, all I can say is hang tight!
A bit over a year ago, a friend of mine connected me to his cousin who was interested in learning some of the math he never had a chance to study in college. That meeting inspired me to start working as a tutor for adults interested in proof-based mathematics, which I have been doing ever since. I have room for a couple more students, so I’ve just put up some more information about the work I do. If you think you might be interested in working with me, don’t hesitate to reach out! You can e-mail me at njmford at gmail dot com or click the envelope icon on the top of this page.
Just under the wire to get it out in 2020, I’ve posted another new article in the physics for mathematicians series about Feynman’s path integral formulation of quantum mechanics. As always, just because one of these pieces has gone up that doesn’t mean I’m not still interested in making improvements, so let me know if you have any to suggest!
While it is going quite slowly, my intention for this series is still to slowly build toward the exposition of quantum field theory I wish I’d read many years ago, and this piece is one of the bricks in that wall. I’m a bit unsure of where I’ll go next. The last thing I think I’d really like to cover before diving into QFT proper is a discussion of how renormalization arises in statistical mechanics, but there are also a few topics — like general relativity for example — that are still very interesting despite not being part of this particular narrative thread. Feel free to reach out if there’s a topic (even one I haven’t listed, or even something that isn’t physics) that you’d like to see covered in this style.
I’ve posted a new article in the physics for mathematicians series, the promised piece on thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. This one ended up being quite long, but I learned a huge amount over the many months it took to prepare it and I hope that some of you learn a lot from reading it. As always, I would love to hear any feedback anyone has on this piece or any other!
I am still working on this series, but I’m not sure yet what the next piece will be. At the top of the list right now is a shorter article about the Feynman path integral formulation of quantum mechanics. Somewhere in the pipe is also a piece about general relativity. I’m always open to suggestions! Send me an e-mail if there’s a topic you’d like to see covered in this style.