American ski bum next Einstein?
A surfer dude with no fixed address may be this century's Einstein.
A. Garrett Lisi, a physicist who divides his time between surfing in Maui and teaching snowboarding in Lake Tahoe, has come up with what may be the Grand Unified Theory.
That's the "holy grail" of physics that scientists have been searching for ever since Albert Einstein presented his General Theory of Relativity nearly 100
More..years ago.
Even more remarkable is that Lisi, who has a Ph.D. but no permanent university affiliation, solves the problem without resorting to exotic dimensions, string theory or exceptionally complex mathematics.
A successful Grand Unified Theory would use a series of equations to show how the four fundamental forces of nature — gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces — relate to each other.
Electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force, which controls radioactivity, were linked more than 30 years ago, and some progress has been made with linking them to the strong nuclear force, which binds protons together in the atomic nucleus.
But gravity has always been an outlier. Not only have all attempts to link gravity to the other three forces failed, but physicists still can't agree on what gravity actually is or how it works.
Lisi solves this by using the E8 lattice, an eight-dimensional structure visualized earlier this year in a widely circulated paper.
He noticed that several of the equations used to describe the lattice matched those he'd come up with trying to resolve the four fundamental forces.
"The moment this happened my brain exploded with the implications and the beauty of the thing," Lisi tells New Scientist magazine. "I thought: 'Holy crap, that's it!'"
By mapping known subatomic particles, plus 20 imaginary ones, onto the 248 points of the E8 lattice, and then rotating the lattice in a computer model, Lisi shows how the particles elegantly combine to form three of the four forces.
The imaginary ones combine to form gravity, for which subatomic particles have only been theorized.
"Some incredibly beautiful stuff falls out of Lisi's theory," David Ritz Finkelstein of Georgia Tech tells New Scientist. "I think that this must be more than coincidence and he really is touching on something profound."
But Professor Marcus du Sautoy of Oxford tells Britain's Daily Telegraph that "there seem to be a lot of things still to fill in."
For his part, Lisi self-mockingly calls his finding "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything," and downplays the suggestion that it may be the Grand Unified Theory.
"The theory is very young, and still in development," he tells the Daily Telegraph. "Right now, I'd assign a low (but not tiny) likelihood to this prediction."
He hopes the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, currently being built on the Swiss-French border will find some of his 20 imaginary gravity-related particles.
"This is an all-or-nothing kind of theory — it's either going to be exactly right, or spectacularly wrong," Lisi tells New Scientist. "I'm the first to admit this is a long shot. But it ain't over till the LHC sings."
http://sifter.org/~aglisi/
http://arxiv.org/pdf/0711.0770
Less..
Added: Nov 18 2007 In: education
By: asscakes 
- Views: 1590 |
- Votes: 2 |
- Recommendations: 0 |
- Comments: 11
Comments - sort by newest to oldest
An eccentric fellow indeed.
Posted Nov-18-2007 by "AegeanTitan" (R)
Hmmm...I'm moving to Maui in a couple of weeks. I'll have to keep an eye out for Einstein.
Posted Nov-18-2007 by "too_much_noise" (R)
Nice post. I hadnt read much about this fellow. (But will look now) As ukilledkenny said, it is a great time to be alive... so may discoveries and possibilities.
Posted Nov-18-2007 by "Yukkione" (R)
hmmmm...Surfs Maui, snowboards Tahoe, has "brain exploding" moments and contemplates the secrets of the universe...definition of a pothead.
Posted Nov-18-2007 by "Fathead619" (R)
agreed, but in an entirely different way than Einstein was
Posted Nov-18-2007 by "Axekick" (R)
hmmmm...Surfs Maui, snowboards Tahoe, has
"brain exploding" moments and
contemplates the secrets of the
universe...definition of a pothead.
Posted 5 hours ago by "Fathead619" (R)
-----------------------------------------------------
You know, "potheads" who smoke and meditate, often do have moments where they "see" the relationship between everything in the universe. It is unbelievable how clear and simple it actually is.
Unless you have done it, you wont have any idea what that means.
Posted Nov-18-2007 by "espy000" (B)
I bet he smokes dope.
Posted Nov-18-2007 by "MaxBlacks" (R)
I forgot this link of the theory explained on video, sorry. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-xHw9zcCvRQ
Come on guys, he went to Burning Man, of course he smokes at least a little weed.
Posted Nov-18-2007 by "asscakes" (R)
He's probably an Amway representative also.
Posted Nov-19-2007 by "bongabonga99" (B)
Come on guys, he went to Burning Man, of course he smokes at least a little weed.
"a little weed"...ah, try hay bails.
Posted Nov-23-2007 by "Fathead619" (R)
"brain exploding" moments and
contemplates the secrets of the
universe...definition of a pothead.
Posted 5 hours ago by "Fathead619" (R)
-----------------------------------------------------
You know, "potheads" who smoke and meditate, often do have moments where they "see" the relationship between everything in the universe. It is unbelievable how clear and simple it actually is.
Unless you have done it, you wont have any idea what that means.
Or they could just be full of shit :P We all know smoking pot, and drinking alot kills the brain. It will NOT make you a gen-i-asssss by any means.
Losers use drugs and this guy maybe onto something but I bet he is not ON anything like drugs.
Posted Dec-11-2007 by "SkipT" (B)