Tempus Fugit

Garrett Lisi har presenterat en ny kandidat till en theory of everything. Han utgår från Liegruppmångfalden E8 och identifierar olika symmetrier med elementarpartiklar och krafter. Även gravitationen tycks passa in i mönstret.

Differential geometry is the study of smooth manifolds, usually in many dimensions -- it's calculus on steroids. There are ways of classifying symmetric manifolds, and this links up with all other branches of mathematics; so differential geometry is sort of a hub where a lot of mathematics comes together. Now, there is one manifold in particular -- the largest simple exceptional Lie group manifold, E8 -- that is the most beautiful. The system of roots in the picture I sent you describes the 248 symmetries of E8. What I'm working on is identifying each of the elementary particle fields of the standard model and gravity as one of these symmetries. It turns out that this match is... perfect, as far as I've been able to tell. This model is very new, and there are still things I don't understand about it, but it looks perfect so far. You have to be very careful with these things though, as they can encounter a fatal difficulty at any turn -- and when theory contradicts experiment, or requires unreasonable revision, you have to toss it and move on. But this theory of fitting all the standard model and gravitational fields into E8 is working very well so far.

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