Hottest topics in physics

Which research topics in physics are currently the "hottest"? It depends on how you measure "hot". In this paper: An extension of the Hirsch Index: Indexing scientific topics and compounds, it's done by modifying a citation indexing technique used to measure which scientists are most influential. Instead of counting how often an author's paper is cited by others, the technique counts how often papers are cited that have specific topics mentioned in the abstract.

Here are the highest-scoring topics, in decreasing order:

1. carbon nanotubes
   
2. nanowires
   
3. quantum dots
   
4. fullerenes
   
5. giant magnetoresistance
   
6. M-theory
   
7. quantum computation
   
8. teleportation
   
9. superstrings
   
10. heavy fermions
    
11. spin valves
    
12. spin glass
    
13. porous silicon
    
14. quantum critical point
    
15. geometrical frustration
    
16. quantum information
    

Here's a news article with a good summary: Hottest topic in physics revealed.

Tags: physics