Is my image of a theoretical physicist right or wrong?

[Alex Mercer]

I am thinking that theoretical theorists analyse scientific journals and theorize an explanation for the experimental results and make predictions also. I looked on arXiv and saw that people already uploaded theories related to the recent muon g2 experiment and said that dark matter had something to do with it. So is this what theoretical physicists can do in their spare time or for their job, look at scientific journals/experimental results and try mathematically explain it? Also what is the learning process like? For example if someone who did specialized in condenesed matter physics wanted to work on high energy physics, what would be their way to do that?

edit: sorry if stupid but hey I don't know much besides google searches

Edited June 13, 2021 by Alex Mercer

[swansont]

Developing new models or refining existing models. Sometimes in response to new experiments, but sometimes these are long-standing problems. Also developing models based on some conjecture, i.e. “what if X were the case” that has no direct observation to suggest it. There are plenty of examples - Einstein with relativity, atomic transition models, and Bose-Einstein statistics. Feynman with the spinning and precessing plate applied to quantum systems. Szilard thinking up the fission chain reaction in response to observing traffic lights.

Sometimes the new models can be compared to existing experiments, and sometimes they need experiments to be developed to test them.