PhD Surf Bum Proposes New Unified Theory
 

Here's a link to the story.

Does anyone here know anything about this that they could dumb down to layman's terms? It seems to relate highly to this E8 pattern. another link, about E8.

"E8 is the symmetries of a geometric object that is 57-dimensional. E8 itself is 248-dimensional."

So if anyone can explain 248 dimensions to me I'd appreciate it. I'm an EE so I have some background in physics, but this stuff seems to be a little beyond me.

Re: PhD Surf Bum Proposes New Unified Theory
 

Lee Smolin is not an idiot. If he likes it, and it is predicting things like the masses of the fundamental particles, it is definitely worth looking at.

Re: PhD Surf Bum Proposes New Unified Theory
 

I have T-shirt that has the Dynkin diagrams for E8 and several other Lie algebras on it, and I'm not ashamed to admit that.

Re: PhD Surf Bum Proposes New Unified Theory
 

[ QUOTE ]
Lee Smolin is not an idiot. If he likes it, and it is predicting things like the masses of the fundamental particles, it is definitely worth looking at.

[/ QUOTE ]

It does not predict masses (explicitly, yet). But it has no free parameters (e.g. coupling constants), so it is very constrained, and would be testable if the theory could be developed further.

Re: PhD Surf Bum Proposes New Unified Theory
 

So is anything about E8, or how this theory works explainable to the general public?

Re: PhD Surf Bum Proposes New Unified Theory
 

Links:

The paper

http://arxiv.org/abs/0711.0770

Technical stuff:

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week253.html

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/oct.pdf (long)

Blogs:

http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=617

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=196498

http://backreaction.blogspot.com/200...eption-of.html

http://motls.blogspot.com/2007/11/ex...theory-of.html

You will note that opinions vary considerably.

Enjoy! [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: PhD Surf Bum Proposes New Unified Theory
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Lee Smolin is not an idiot. If he likes it, and it is predicting things like the masses of the fundamental particles, it is definitely worth looking at.

[/ QUOTE ]

It does not predict masses (explicitly, yet). But it has no free parameters (e.g. coupling constants), so it is very constrained, and would be testable if the theory could be developed further.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah. That isn't quite so exciting then. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: PhD Surf Bum Proposes New Unified Theory
 

[ QUOTE ]
http://motls.blogspot.com/2007/11/ex...theory-of.html


[/ QUOTE ]
This guy is an enormous dick.

Re: PhD Surf Bum Proposes New Unified Theory
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
http://motls.blogspot.com/2007/11/ex...theory-of.html


[/ QUOTE ]
This guy is an enormous dick.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. But that doesn't mean he's wrong.

Re: PhD Surf Bum Proposes New Unified Theory
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
http://motls.blogspot.com/2007/11/ex...theory-of.html


[/ QUOTE ]
This guy is an enormous dick.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. But that doesn't mean he's wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]

He has a long track record of screwing up some really simple stuff and has a habit of disagreeing with mainstream scientists on a variety of topics. It would be wise to look for other sources of information even if it's only to double check what he writes.