Hi @Dig1t, PhD in quantum physics here. I think it's important to add some nuance here.
1. The crackpots are trying to "disrupt" or "overhaul" the very foundations of Physics. Finding something beyond general relativity or beyond quantum field theory is unlikely without high brain power combined with a minimum of 10 years of full time study. There's no way around it. It's like wanting to be an opera composer with a few months of guitar lessons.
2. This does not mean that there aren't thousands of fun, relevant and impactful physics problems out there. In all areas of physics. There are thousands of small questions that puzzle the best physicists and which they don't have time for, or haven't gotten the inspiration for, etc. Many of them can be tackled without understanding the whole field. It's not about laying new foundations which need to agree with decades and decades of data and theory. It's about using the tools to push the frontier.
If (2) sound interesting, keep going. If you contact a physicist and say:
- I know this and that math (done all problems in this and that textbook)
- I'm interested in your field
- Are there any accessible open problems that my math could potentially crack open?
Most physicists will likely point you towards interesting problems.
1. The crackpots are trying to "disrupt" or "overhaul" the very foundations of Physics. Finding something beyond general relativity or beyond quantum field theory is unlikely without high brain power combined with a minimum of 10 years of full time study. There's no way around it. It's like wanting to be an opera composer with a few months of guitar lessons.
2. This does not mean that there aren't thousands of fun, relevant and impactful physics problems out there. In all areas of physics. There are thousands of small questions that puzzle the best physicists and which they don't have time for, or haven't gotten the inspiration for, etc. Many of them can be tackled without understanding the whole field. It's not about laying new foundations which need to agree with decades and decades of data and theory. It's about using the tools to push the frontier.
If (2) sound interesting, keep going. If you contact a physicist and say:
- I know this and that math (done all problems in this and that textbook) - I'm interested in your field - Are there any accessible open problems that my math could potentially crack open?
Most physicists will likely point you towards interesting problems.