bootstrap – Quanta Magazine

New Proof Distinguishes Mysterious and Powerful ‘Modular Forms’

Jordana Cepelewicz — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 15:30:08 +0000

In a new proof, a long-neglected mathematical object has finally gotten its moment in the spotlight. At first glance, modular forms — functions whose abundant symmetries have intrigued mathematicians for centuries — seem to have garnered more than enough attention. They crop up in all sorts of problems: They were a key ingredient in Andrew Wiles’ 1994 proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem...

Source

In a Numerical Coincidence, Some See Evidence for String Theory

Natalie Wolchover — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 14:58:43 +0000

Recently, three physicists calculated a number pertaining to the quantum nature of gravity. When they saw the value, “we couldn’t believe it,” said Pedro Vieira, one of the three. Gravity’s quantum-scale details are not something physicists usually know how to quantify, but the trio attacked the problem using an approach that has lately been racking up stunners in other areas of physics.

Source

Laws of Logic Lead to New Restrictions on the Big Bang

Charlie Wood — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 15:05:15 +0000

For over 20 years, physicists have had reason to feel envious of certain fictional fish: specifically, the fish inhabiting the fantastic space of M.C. Escher’s Circle Limit III woodcut, which shrink to points as they approach the circular boundary of their ocean world. If only our universe had the same warped shape, theorists lament, they might have a much easier time understanding it.

Source

Mathematicians Prove 2D Version of Quantum Gravity Really Works

Charlie Wood — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 13:56:28 +0000

Alexander Polyakov, a theoretical physicist now at Princeton University, caught a glimpse of the future of quantum theory in 1981. A range of mysteries, from the wiggling of strings to the binding of quarks into protons, demanded a new mathematical tool whose silhouette he could just make out. “There are methods and formulae in science which serve as master keys to many apparently different...

Source

Why the Laws of Physics Are Inevitable

Natalie Wolchover — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 16:00:20 +0000

Compared to the unsolved mysteries of the universe, far less gets said about one of the most profound facts to have crystallized in physics over the past half-century: To an astonishing degree, nature is the way it is because it couldn’t be any different. “There’s just no freedom in the laws of physics that we have,” said Daniel Baumann, a theoretical physicist at the University of Amsterdam.

Source