Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Hi, I am wondering what the best places are for primarily quantum gravity, and also string theory (but not exclusively string theory) and cosmology, and other related . I've seen the schools listed in US News and World Report, and I am aware of U Waterloo and the Perimeter Institute. I'm also considering Columbia, U Maryland, U Pittsburgh, and Cornell. Does anyone know how strong these schools would be in this area?

I assume by quantum gravity you mean LQG and related approaches to the problem? If so, I think PSU is good for that. As for schools that are good in LQG and string theory, I can't think of other than Waterloo and Perimeter. I don't think any of the schools you mentioned have groups in both areas. Columbia, Cornell and Maryland do have people doing strings, though.

Maryland seems to have some non stringy research going on in their gravity group. Other than that, all the other QG research out there is either supergravity or string theory. A good page to look at would be this one:

http://www.superstringtheory.com/links/ ... teprograms

Most of the departments listed here are pretty good in string theory. I've used it to help determine some of the schools I'm applying to. In any case, you want to check out the high energy theory faculty of each department before applying.

UCSB?

Most of the people at UCSB are doing research in string theory. They currently don't have any LQG research going on there (one faculty member used to do LQG, but is now doing stuff in the gravitational aspects of string theory). James Hartle, on the other hand, may be doing quantum gravity research that's not directly related to string theory.

The OP never mentioned LQG...

Well, the second poster posted under the assumption that the OP meant LQG when he mentioned quantum gravity, so I decided that it was appropriate to talk about it.

Besides, I had wanted to do LQG at one point (though not anymore) and spent a lot of time trying to find schools that had people doing LQG. I thought it might be useful to post some of the information I've gathered during that time.

The OP said quantum gravity AND string theory. That is why I assumed he was referring to LQG and related approaches. Or are you aware of any other mainstream approach to quantum gravity, tmc?

I was merely pointing out that it would be wrong to tell him to avoid certain universities because their only research is in string theory, when the op never mentioned that he wanted to avoid string theory.

I don't think anyone was telling the OP to avoid certain schools. Perhaps I should have been more clear about it earlier, but in North America, PSU and Perimeter/Waterloo are the only places (as far as I know) that have research groups in both ST and LQG. Louisiana State has LQG research but no ST, and just about all the other schools out there only have ST/Supergravity research going on, as far as quantum gravity is concerned. I was just pointing out which schools are good in ST, and that UCSB doesn't have any LQG research going on right now.

Thanks for the responses. I am not trying to avoid string theory - I am interested in it but want to keep my options open. By quantum gravity, I meant both LQG and other related approaches.