How Integrated are Theoretical and Applied Physics?

Abstract

How well integrated are more theoretically and application oriented works in Physics currently? This interesting question, which has several relevant implications, has been approached mostly in a more subjective way. Recent concepts and methods from network science are used in the current work in order to develop a more principled, quantitative and objective approach to gauging the integration and centrality of more theoretical/applied journals within the APS journals database, represented as a directed and undirected citation network. The results suggest a surprising level of integration between more theoretically and application oriented journals, which are also characterized by remarkably similar centralities in the network.