I have no idea what's going on

edited 2012-05-05 11:46:29 in General
http://motls.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html

35 years of N=4 Yang-Mills theory


Update: See also a newer article on 11-dimensional supergravity

George Musser who writes for Scientific American has authored an unusually (for SciAm) scientifically oriented blog entry

The Emperor, Darth Vader, and the Ultimate Ultimate Theory of Physics

about the 35th birthday of the maximally supersymmetric i.e. N=4Yang-Mills theory in d=4. It's not just the anniversary. A conference is taking place at Caltech between Thursday and Saturday (it ends today),
Conference "N=4 Super Yang-Mills Theory, 35 Years After".

The list of big shots who are participating is spectacular.

image

An approximate photographic reconstruction of the N=4 Yang-Mills theory or "Darth Vader" as it was renamed by Nima (no idea why but my guess is that he wasn't on crack). Does she look younger or older than 35 years?

This quantum field theory has become one of the modern era's "quantum harmonic oscillators". It involves much more nontrivial structures and relationships than the quantum harmonic oscillator but it has a comparably far-reaching and intellectual diverse impact on a large fraction of the landscape of the modern theoretical physics research.

One of the most efficient ways to determine that someone who talks about high-energy physics is a hopeless and worthless deluded crank is to notice that he either dismisses the importance of the N=4 gauge theory or he doesn't even know what it is.
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Comments

  • edited 2012-05-05 12:05:37
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • Remember back in the 50s when they'd record like Elvis singing YOU AIN'T NOTHIN BUT A HOUND DOG and then they'd turn the record over and reverse it and it was all NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP and people were all like, "That is actually the voice of Satan coming from that song."
    I'm a science student, and I still couldn't wrap my head around it. Then again, I'm focusing on biology and not physics.

    While I did pretty well at physics in high school, I never got around to taking any upper-level physics classes that might involve whatever this sort of thing is.
  • READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    image

    Oops: I just found out that only this one is Darth Vader; the lady at the top is a Storm Trooper.

    But I have to stop at some moment and I decided that the moment is 35 seconds from now. Happy 35th birthday, N=4 gauge theory. I think it's likely that Darth Vader will show us some of her new colors in the future, too – whether we talk about her in the limit of a large number of colors or outside this limit.


    Well...that explains ONE thing...
  • THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    This person is speaking almost entirely in jargon, which is one of my crackpot flags. :P The theory in question is real, but I admit I don't really understand it either, beyond it being yet another conceptualization of multi-dimensional spacetime.
  • READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    I skimmed a bit. I think string theory was mentioned in there...
  • ~*tasteless*~
    大學的年同性戀毛皮

    aaaaa
    TL;DR, nice pics :D
  • READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    That's about all I've gotten out of this...

    I think the physics problem is named after Darth Vader? And He's a girl? And something, something darkside string theory?
  • Wait, if she's supposed to be Darth Vader then shouldn't her body be all burny?

    I know the emphasis was on TEH SECKSY but still.
  • READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    I think you answered your own question. The customer picked "sexy" over "accuracy".
  • It'd be funny if someone bought the costume and put on a burny mask and makeup and stuff though, for like All Hallows' Eve or something.
  • READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    I read that as "bunny" mask at first:

    image
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