The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

Physicists have discovered a jewel-like geometric object that dramatically simplifies calculations of particle interactions and challenges the notion that space and time are fundamental components of reality.

Quanta Magazine

Very interesting work here. Although it is worth noting that this new way of calculating has yet to be shown to correspond to reality (the particles that exist as opposed to the idealized versions used to develop this formulation). How to check for this is known, but will take time.

 
I keep thinking about Einstein's statement that matter, energy, time, and space were all were all inter-related, which I have always taken as be analogous to the ice - water - steam relationship.
If this idea holds water, the Theory of Everything could be a single fundamental equation; and everything else, including time and space, could be derived from it

Physicists have discovered a jewel-like geometric object that dramatically simplifies calculations of particle interactions and challenges the notion that space and time are fundamental components of reality.

Quanta Magazine

Awesome, literally.

Being a guy who loves to have science and myth crosspollinate, upon reading about a jewel at the heart of everything, my mind jumped to what I (and many others) consider one of the most gorgeous of mythic metaphors, Indra's net. the Wikipedia entry gives Francis Harold Cook's description of it:

Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each "eye" of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering "like" stars in the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring.

And then being a science-fiction guy, I read the part about the "master amplituhedron" (fantabulous name!) and couldn't help but conjure all sorts of cool plotlines that could spin out of such an object...something like what STAR TREK: VOYAGER did with the omega molecule in the episode "The Omega Directive."

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Omega_Directive_(episode)

OK, dialing down the geekhood now.

Physicists have discovered a jewel-like geometric object that dramatically simplifies calculations of particle interactions and challenges the notion that space and time are fundamental components of reality.

Quanta Magazine

I ended up using this as a jumping-off point for musings on the relationship between science and myth, in my Blog of Mythic Proportions:

http://www.cfcooper.net/the-jewel-at-the-heart-of-everything

That's certainly what many physicists hope for -- even if it ends up being a number of related equations instead of just one.

 
What I'm thinking of is a network of 2-dimensional equilateral triangles where the average distance between any two points is the Planck Length
Any one triangle is flat and rigid, locally satisfying the requirements of Quantum Space; but a group of triangles is flexible, satisfying the spacial requirements of Relativity on larger scales

Thinking a little further on this, if we assume this 2-dimensional Brane to be the fundamental building block of the universe, its definition could become a simple mathematical constant in all your other equasions

That's certainly a possibility. Although I'll admit I'm having more trouble that usual understanding exactly what the is being expressed here: is it an actual object or simply a mathematical object that can be used for calculations. A video is much harder for me to follow than an actual paper on stuff like this.

That's certainly a possibility. Although I'll admit I'm having more trouble that usual understanding exactly what the is being expressed here: is it an actual object or simply a mathematical object that can be used for calculations.

I read it as being the latter, a mathematical object for calculations. Though Dragonoake's point about the fuzzy difference between real and conceptual at this level is well taken. If the behavior of particles can be modeled from an underlying geometry, doesn't that suggest that something possessing that geometry might exist as a root cause of the behavior?

(I'm SO out of my depth here...)