Why are physicists interested in E8?

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• Rob Wilson (Queen Mary, London)
• Wednesday 26 October 2022, 15:00-16:00
• Lecture Theatre C, Watson Building.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Simon Goodwin.

The short answer is “I don’t know”. But they certainly seem to see structures in E₈ that remind them of structures they see in the physics of elementary particles. My best guess is that these are mirages, and that behind it all is the representation theory of the binary icosahedral group (i.e., the double cover of Alt(5)), linked to E₈ via the McKay correspondence.

This talk is part of the Algebra seminar series.

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• Algebra seminar
• Lecture Theatre C, Watson Building
• School of Mathematics events

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