The idea of doing extra work in an academic setting is probably nothing new to you. Whether it be to put something extra on your CV, personal skill development and expansion of knowledge etc. etc. there is no doubt that if you put in more work you'll get more out (how much more admittedly can vary).
So whatever the stage you're at in your degree, what 'extra' things can you do? Often it is hard when studying theoretical physics to identify these, they simply aren't as apparent as for experimentalists or other scientists generally (I think). Prospective theorists are, at first glance, in a similar predicament to mathematicians. But over my degree I learned that there is plenty you can do, somethings big and somethings small, to boost your prospects in theory.
Disclaimer: As always, this list is not exhaustive but includes all the major activities I've seen students undertake to enhance their opportunities.
Easier:
Do the optional problems:
Some people need not be told this, plenty of physicists are academic masochists by nature! But plenty of us (myself included) have periods of time where we neglect to push ourselves to do the harder optional problems at the end of a problem sheet or those mentioned in lecture. Try and work through this if you can, sometimes time restraints come into play but if you have the time do your best to attempt optional problems, they often reveal a lot more about the subject than the standard tasks.
Investigate problems that interest you:
This need not be solely related to your courses, of course if your lecturer mentions something and you want to investigate and play around please do! But sometimes interesting topics arise completely outside of university. Time for a personal example.
I play the electric guitar, the part of the guitar where the frets are fitted is called the fingerboard and on electric guitars it is 'radiused' (i.e. it has a curvature). Different electric guitars have different radii, one might follow a circle with a 9.5 inch radius (Fender style) and another a 12 inch (Gibson style). A lot of musicians talk about how different radii feel, but I was interested in an actual numerical comparison. So I used Mathematica to plot various radii aligning a point on the circumference of the radii. Whilst this was a nice comparative diagram, it isn't very numerical so I compared the difference in distance between a flat fretboard and the surface of a given radius fretboard at the edge of the a standard Fender guitar neck. In doing so I was able to express this distance as a function of the radius, illuminating me as to 'how flat' certain radii actually are...
Yes I did actually do this in my spare time, that is something I might do on an afternoon and as you might be able to tell... I really enjoyed it. It was also great practise for Mathematica and some problem solving. So if you ask a question (or someone you know does) and the answer isn't immediately apparent, try and work out an answer!
READ!
You knew it was coming and here it is. But I don't mean trawl through thousands of pages of dry textbook material. First lets identify 'useful things you can read':
- Textbooks
- Journal Articles
- Popular Science Books
- Online articles (e.g. Wikipedia)
These are good for different things. If your lecturer mentions something specific in class that interests you, a textbook might suit. If they mention a piece of research that catches your ear, go read the Journal Article! What if it's too high level? Well maybe a PhysicsWorld article would be a better starting point. If you're in first year the particle physics behind dark matter research is not likely to be accessible for at that point. But a popular science book could provide some valuable conceptual insight that would prepare you for studying the real physics behind the ideas! Huge pdf's are also available, like the entire Feynman lectures which cost over £100 for a physical copy. Ultimately all these sources can benefit you, no matter what stage of studying. The more information you can absorb the better!
Watch/listen to lectures and science communicators:
YouTube is an established learning platform, with an enormous wealth of material that can benefit your studies available for free! This is also something you can do whilst doing other things, useful to keep your mind from rusting up if you need a break from the more intense activities in physics.
Many universities have published recordings of their lecture courses, i.e. Stanford, which are complete lecture courses on subjects like general relativity. There are also historic lectures like recordings of Richard Feynman, which are still very insightful and can often aid your conceptual outlook on problem solving. Public lectures are also useful if you haven't really traversed a subject yet, providing a conceptual grounding for you to work from.
Popular physics/maths channels are also great, I imagine most of you follow at least some of the following: 3Blue1Brown, Domain of Science (whose map series I love), MinutePhysics, Numberphile, Sixty Symbols, Kurzgesagt - In A Nutshell and I'm sure there are many many more! Some of these offer nice introductory reminders and inspiration with nice graphics (e.g. Kurzgesagt) and others offer higher level content (e.g. 3Blue1Brown).
Talk with your colleagues and lecturers:
If there's one thing I regret about how I handled my degree it's the fact I didn't engage with fellow theory students or try to talk to my lecturers more. The students who did clearly benefited from it and I think it had a very positive effect on their academic performance. This not only exposes you to new ideas but the networking is invaluable, giving you sources of advice to turn especially if you develop a good working relationship with lecturers.
Harder:
An industrial placement scheme:
Many university physics departments have specific placement schemes that offer tailored industry experience. As an aspiring theorist it is understandably tempting to dismiss this as a waste of time, with it being so different to theoretical physics academia. But some placements offer experiences relevant to theoretical physics skills. Although I ended up doing something different I was planning on applying to a data fitting placement (in a solid state physics setting) that would have given me practise with programming and function manipulation etc. These kind of placements usually revolve around programming so make sure you're up to speed on that.
A large scale research placement scheme:
Now this is HARD. The classic placement is the CERN final year 'internship' but plenty of people go to Japan, America, South Korea etc. Usually placements are available on experiments, particular in particle physics, but there can be analysis opportunities at experiments if you're willing to dig. You have to accept with these placements that the chances are you won't really be doing 'theory'. But that doesn't mean they can't do great things for you, plus they are often well funded.
A research placement with a university academic:
Sometimes universities run a formal scheme for this, others don't. This could be at your own university or at another and like large scale placements they are very competitive. For a theorist this is often the best route because university academics are more willing to let students pursue a theoretical topic. I was lucky enough to start my Bachelors thesis early in the form of a summer research placement. A stereotypical example is the UCL particle physics placement scheme that assigns you to a UCL academic to undertake a research project. But beware, these placements are not always funded and if they are they are not usually funded as well as the previous two.
Note: You can do more than one of these! Experimentalists often do an industrial placement in their 2nd year and a research placement in their 3rd year.
I hope that's given you some ideas for some things to do alongside your regular studies!
