The Zitter Institute

Post author:The Physics Detective
Post published:27th August 2025
Post category:Particle physics
Post comments:3 Comments

The world is a troubled place, and I don’t feel too optimistic about it right now. I won’t go into details because this is a physics blog, not a politics blog. But for me the cherry on top of all the internecine strife comes from Avi Loeb. He’s been saying 3I/Atlas might be a massive alien spaceship. That’s because it’s come in on the planetary plane, and the coma is in front not behind. Wikipedia says it’s just an interstellar comet, but it still bothers me.…

Guidance notes for simulations

Post author:The Physics Detective
Post published:31st January 2025
Post category:Electromagnetism Particle physics
Post comments:38 Comments

I’ve spoken to various people about simulations over the years. The latest conversation I had was on a Zoom session a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about how Einstein viewed space as some kind of gin-clear ghostly elastic, and how he said a field was a state of space. I was reminded that it would be a good thing if somebody did a simulation to depict things like the photon in this elastic space, along with gamma-gamma pair production, the electron, the positron, and…