Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything

[Michaelangelica]

Lisi's inspiration lies in the most elegant and intricate shape known to mathematics, called E8 - a complex, eight-dimensional mathematical pattern with 248 points first found in 1887, but only fully understood by mathematicians this year after workings, that, if written out in tiny print, would cover an area the size of Manhattan.

Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything - Telegraph

[freeztar]

Wow, great article M!

 

Some more from the article...

 

What Lisi had realised was that he could find a way to place the various elementary particles and forces on E8's 248 points. What remained was 20 gaps which he filled with notional particles, for example those that some physicists predict to be associated with gravity.

 

Physicists have long puzzled over why elementary particles appear to belong to families, but this arises naturally from the geometry of E8, he says. So far, all the interactions predicted by the complex geometrical relationships inside E8 match with observations in the real world. "How cool is that?" he says.

 

The crucial test of Lisi's work will come only when he has made testable predictions. Lisi is now calculating the masses that the 20 new particles should have, in the hope that they may be spotted when the Large Hadron Collider starts up.

 

"The theory is very young, and still in development," he told the Telegraph. "Right now, I'd assign a low (but not tiny) likelyhood to this prediction.

 

"For comparison, I think the chances are higher that LHC will see some of these particles than it is that the LHC will see superparticles, extra dimensions, or micro black holes as predicted by string theory. I hope to get more (and different) predictions, with more confidence, out of this E8 Theory over the next year, before the LHC comes online."

 

I'm going to look into his paper and see for myself what he's proposing, but from the article, it looks like exciting stuff! It's a shame that there are currently no predictions to experiment with, but it seems that Lisi is trying to develop them at least.

[Turtle]

Unfortunately after all the hype, Lisi's use of the E8 group as a TOE has not panned out. :( The work has however provided some interesting insights and a lot of debate. :QuestionM (check the blog entries following the article linked below.)

 

 

Garrett Lisi: This surfer is no Einstein... - Telegraph

 

Garrett Lisi' date=' an unemployed physicist with no university affiliation who spent his time surfing in Hawaii, had come up with the Holy Grail of science: a theory unifying quantum physics and Einstein's theory of relativity.

 

Garrett Lisi: Dude, where's my theory?

The media went wild. However, in the last few weeks several physics blogs have uncovered a problem with Lisi's idea: it doesn't work.

 

But to understand why, it is necessary to explore the fascinating concept the 39-year-old based his theory on - symmetry. ...[/quote']

[Michaelangelica]

I really don't understand it

(Too many sums):)

But I knew it would interest many here.

m

[Turtle]

I really don't understand it

(Too many sums):)

But I knew it would interest many here.

m

 

No worries mate. The interests due add up sum times. :D We have a story here on the mapping of E8, and all you need is vision to enjoy it for itself. :) >> http://hypography.com/forums/general-science-news/10841-mathematical-solution-another-dimension.html?highlight=E8%2A