E8
NOW WE’VE GOT IT!
March 17, 2007BEATBOTS
March 24, 2007An international team of 18 mathematicians, including two from MIT, has mapped one of the largest and most complicated structures in mathematics. If written out on paper, the calculation describing this structure, known as E8, would cover an area the size of Manhattan.
The work is important because it could lead to new discoveries in mathematics, physics and other fields. In addition, the innovative large-scale computing that was key to the work likely spells the future for how longstanding math problems will be solved in the 21st century.
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The magnitude and nature of the E8 calculation invite comparison with the Human Genome Project. 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 and its representations, is 60 gigabytes. This is enough to store 45 days of continuous music in MP3-format.
The mapping of E8 is also unusual because it involved a large team of mathematicians, who are typically known for their solitary style. “People will look back on this project as a significant landmark and because of this breakthrough, mathematics will now be viewed as a team sport,” said Brian Conrey, executive director of AIM.
Large scale computational mathematics fundamentally relies on the use of computers to solve mathematical equations that humans are incapable of solving on their own. The above proof is totally awesome from the perspective of a math novice, but it is also novel in that it involves a team of mathematicians. So I ask again, who counts as members of this team?
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