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  1. > In the fall of 2022, a Princeton University graduate student named Carolina Figueiredo stumbled onto a massive coincidence. She calculated that collisions involving three different types of subatomic particles would all produce the same wreckage. It was like laying a grid over maps of London, Tokyo and New York and seeing that all three cities had train stations at the same coordinates.

    > “They are very different [particle] theories. There’s no reason for them to be connected,” Figueiredo said.

    > The coincidence soon revealed itself to be a conspiracy: The theories describing the three types of particles were, when viewed from the right perspective, essentially one. The conspiracy, Figueiredo and her colleagues realized, stems from the existence of a hidden structure, one that could potentially simplify the complex business of understanding what’s going on at the base level of reality.

    > For nearly two decades, Figueiredo’s doctoral advisor, Nima Arkani-Hamed has been leading a hunt for a new way of doing physics. Many physicists believe they’ve reached the end of the road when it comes to conceptualizing reality in terms of quantum events that play out in space and time.

    > A major development came in 2013, when Arkani-Hamed and his student at the time, Jaroslav Trnka, discovered a jewel-like geometric object that forecasts the outcome of certain particle interactions. They called the object the “amplituhedron.” However, the object didn’t apply to the particles of the real world. So Arkani-Hamed and his colleagues sought more such objects that would.

    > Now Figueiredo’s conspiracy is another manifestation of abstract geometric structure that seems to underlie particle physics.

    > “The overall program is inching closer to Nima’s long-term dream of space-time and quantum mechanics emerging from a new set of principles”

    > Like the amplituhedron, the new geometrical method, known as “surfaceology,” streamlines quantum physics by sidestepping the traditional approach, which is to track the countless ways particles can move through space-time using “Feynman diagrams.” These depictions of particles’ possible collisions and trajectories translate into complicated equations. With surfaceology, physicists can get the same result more directly.

    > Unlike the amplituhedron, which required exotic particles to provide a balance known as supersymmetry, surfaceology applies to more realistic, nonsupersymmetric particles. “It’s completely agnostic. It couldn’t care less about supersymmetry,”

    > The question now is whether this new, more primitive geometric approach to particle physics will allow theoretical physicists to slip the confines of space and time altogether.

    > “We needed to find some magic, and maybe this is it,” said Jacob Bourjaily, a physicist at Pennsylvania State University. “Whether it’s going to get rid of space-time, I don’t know. But it’s the first time I’ve seen a door.”

  2. LuckyandBrownie on

    Fundamentally what is wrong in physics now. Math is a model not reality. Physics has gotten so far up it’s own ass it can no longer tell the difference.

  3. Yoooo BABE!! A New Geometry just dropped!!!

    How many Days are there of Chinese New Year?

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  4. Abject_Role_5066 on

    So basically it’s untestable? And therefore unknowable if this is physics or a fun thought experiment?

  5. Man, I hate regular geometry.. how am I supposed to even help my kids with this crap??

    I barely remember some algebra. Educational system failed me because they turned into money grabbers

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