Hot extra dimensions
The most-cited paper in theoretical particle physics in 2004 was "A large mass hierarchy from a small extra dimension" by Lisa Randall and Raman Sundrum, published in Physical Review Letters in 1999. It was also the fourth most-cited of all high-energy physics papers in 2004, including those on experiments, and it has been in the top ten each year since publication. A facsimile of Randall's working notes related to the paper appears in this month's "logbook" (inside back cover).
The Randall/Sundrum paper has already reached number 19 on the all-time citation list. Randall and Sundrum have written four papers together (another is at number 22 on the all-time list), and only one person has written a paper with both of them: Nima Arkani-Hamed, an extra dimensions expert. His 1998 paper with Savas Dimopoulos and Gia Dvali comes in at number 18 on the all-time list.
Moving up the list one more place to number 17 is the 1981 inflation paper by Alan Guth (featured insymmetry, Dec 2004/ Jan 2005). Guth also happens to be the only person to have published with both Randall and this month's "60 seconds" contributor, Sean Carroll (back cover). Guth and Randall published two papers together, one on neutrinos, the other on inflation, while Guth and Carroll wrote their two joint papers on the difficulties of building time machines.
Heath O'Connell, Fermilab
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