http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311952,00.htmlA. Garrett Lisi, a physicist who divides his time between surfing in Maui and teaching snowboarding in Lake Tahoe, has come up with what may be the Grand Unified Theory.
That's the "holy grail" of physics that scientists have been searching for ever since Albert Einstein presented his General Theory of Relativity nearly 100 years ago.
Even more remarkable is that Lisi, who has a Ph.D. but no permanent university affiliation, solves the problem without resorting to exotic dimensions, string theory or exceptionally complex mathematics.
A successful Grand Unified Theory would use a series of equations to show how the four fundamental forces of nature — gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces — relate to each other.
Electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force, which controls radioactivity, were linked more than 30 years ago, and some progress has been made with linking them to the strong nuclear force, which binds protons together in the atomic nucleus.
But gravity has always been an outlier. Not only have all attempts to link gravity to the other three forces failed, but physicists still can't agree on what gravity actually is or how it works.
Lisi solves this by using the E8 lattice, an eight-dimensional structure visualized earlier this year in a widely circulated paper.
He noticed that several of the equations used to describe the lattice matched those he'd come up with trying to resolve the four fundamental forces.
"The moment this happened my brain exploded with the implications and the beauty of the thing," Lisi tells New Scientist magazine. "I thought: 'Holy crap, that's it!'"
By mapping known subatomic particles, plus 20 imaginary ones, onto the 248 points of the E8 lattice, and then rotating the lattice in a computer model, Lisi shows how the particles elegantly combine to form three of the four forces.
The imaginary ones combine to form gravity, for which subatomic particles have only been theorized.
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The "surfer dude creates unified theory" refers to a theory proposed by a self-proclaimed "surfer dude" named Garrett Lisi. This theory, known as the "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" or E8 Theory, attempts to unify all of the four fundamental forces in physics (gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force) into a single mathematical framework.
Garrett Lisi is a PhD physicist who gained media attention for his E8 Theory, which he proposed in 2007. He is also known for his unconventional lifestyle, including living in a van and surfing in Hawaii.
The E8 Theory proposes that all of the fundamental forces can be described by a single mathematical structure called the E8 Lie group. This group consists of 248 dimensions, and Lisi's theory suggests that the particles and interactions of the universe can be described by the symmetries of this group.
The E8 Theory has received mixed reactions from the scientific community. Some physicists have praised Lisi's attempt to unify the forces, while others have criticized the lack of experimental evidence and the complexity of the theory. It is still considered a controversial and unproven theory.
If the E8 Theory is proven to be correct, it could provide a more elegant and simpler explanation for the fundamental forces in the universe. It could also potentially lead to new technologies and a deeper understanding of the universe. However, more research and evidence is needed before the implications of this theory can be fully realized.