Physicists’ search for a theory that explains all reality in one framework appeared to have stalled. But now they are reinvigorating the hunt by exploring a wild landscape of abstract geometry
WHAT if there were a perfect board game? Some combination of boards and pieces and rules – maybe with a few yet-to-be invented additions – that would create an unsurpassable experience, the only board game anyone ever wants to play?, a putative “final” framework that would explain all reality in one fell swoop. This is the ultimate goal for physics, withIt is an audacious mission, so much so that some people consider it quixotic.
That might strike you as outlandish, but it makes sense to Peter Woit, a mathematician at Columbia University in New York. “Our best theories are already very deeply geometrical,”…