A New Map of All the Particles and Forces | Quanta Magazine
WEBOct 22, 2020 · We’ve created a new way to explore the fundamental constituents of the universe. 68. Ashley Mackenzie for Quanta Magazine. [Editor’s note: The full, interactive map is available below.] All of nature springs from a handful of components — the fundamental particles — that interact with one another in only a few different ways.
The Mystery at the Heart of Physics That Only Math Can Solve
WEBJun 10, 2021 · The accelerating effort to understand the mathematics of quantum field theory will have profound consequences for both math and physics. Olena Shmahalo/Quanta Magazine. Over the past century, quantum field theory has proved to be the single most sweeping and successful physical theory ever invented. It is an umbrella term that encompasses many ...
A Physicist’s Physicist Ponders the Nature of Reality
WEBNov 28, 2017 · A Physicist’s Physicist Ponders the Nature of Reality. Edward Witten reflects on the meaning of dualities in physics and math, emergent space-time, and the pursuit of a complete description of nature. Edward Witten in his office at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Jean Sweep for Quanta Magazine.
Math News, Interviews and Columns From Quanta Magazine
WEBAugust 1, 2024. Cryptography is the thread that connects Julius Caesar, World War II and quantum computing, and it now lies under nearly every part of modern life. In this week’s episode, computer scientist Boaz Barak and co-host Janna Levin discuss the past and future of secrecy. Langlands program. By Erica Klarreich.
A New Physics Theory of Life - Quanta Magazine
WEBJan 22, 2014 · An MIT physicist has proposed the provocative idea that life exists because the law of increasing entropy drives matter to acquire lifelike physical properties. Jeremy England, a 31-year-old physicist at MIT, thinks he has found the underlying physics driving the origin and evolution of life. Katherine Taylor for Quanta Magazine.
How Gödel’s Proof Works - Quanta Magazine
WEBJul 14, 2020 · So the only prime factorization of 243,000,000 is 2 6 × 3 5 × 5 6, meaning there’s only one possible way to decode the Gödel number: the formula 0 = 0. Gödel then went one step further. A mathematical proof consists of a sequence of formulas. So Gödel gave every sequence of formulas a unique Gödel number too.
Mathematician Proves Huge Result on ‘Dangerous’ Problem
WEBDec 11, 2019 · Lothar Collatz likely posed the eponymous conjecture in the 1930s. The problem sounds like a party trick. Pick a number, any number. If it’s odd, multiply it by 3 and add 1. If it’s even, divide it by 2. Now you have a new number. Apply the same rules to the new number. The conjecture is about what happens as you keep repeating the process.
Topology 101: The Hole Truth | Quanta Magazine
WEBJan 26, 2021 · For instance, in 1813 the Swiss mathematician Simon Lhuilier recognized that if we punch a hole in a polyhedron to make it more donut-shaped, changing its topology, then V – E + F = 0. Samuel Velasco/Quanta Magazine. Interestingly, while Euler and Lhuilier imagined their polyhedra as solid, Euler’s formula is …
How Bell’s Theorem Proved ‘Spooky Action at a Distance’ Is Real
WEBJul 20, 2021 · The root of today’s quantum revolution was John Stewart Bell’s 1964 theorem showing that quantum mechanics really permits instantaneous connections between far-apart locations. We take for granted that an event in one part of the world cannot instantly affect what happens far away. This principle, which physicists call locality, was long ...
The Most Famous Paradox in Physics Nears Its End
WEBOct 29, 2020 · The work appears to resolve a paradox that Stephen Hawking first described five decades ago. Ashley Mackenzie for Quanta Magazine. In a series of breakthrough papers, theoretical physicists have come tantalizingly close to resolving the black hole information paradox that has entranced and bedeviled them for nearly 50 years.