E8
structure, one of the largest and most complicated
structures in mathematics which were invented
in 1887, now mapped off successfully by 18 top
mathematicians and computer scientists from the
United States and Europe, after four years of
intensive collaboration.
Jeffrey Adams, project leader and mathematics
professor said:
“This groundbreaking achievement is significant
both as an advance in basic knowledge, as well
as a major advance in the use of large scale computing
to solve complicated mathematical problems”.
He said that the
mapping of E8 may well have un anticipated implications
in mathematics and physics which won’t
be evident for years to come.
|
“E8
belongs to so - called ‘Lie groups’
that were invented by a 19th century Norwegian
mathematician Sophus Lie to study symmetry. The
theory holds that underlying any symmetrical object,
such as a sphere is a Lie group. Balls, cylinders
or cones are familiar examples of symmetric three
dimensional objects.
In fact, E8 itself is 248 – dimensional.
The scientists said the magnitude of the E8 calculation
invited comparison with the human genome project.
While
the human genome, which contains all the genetic
information of a cell, is less than a gigabyte
in size, the result of the E8 calculation, which
contains all the information about E8, is 60 gigabytes
in size, they said.
Source:
NIE
|
