Mark Ronan's website
Symmetry and the Monster
in 100 words
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The
mathematical study of symmetry is called group theory because it studies 'groups' of symmetry operations. Most of these
groups can be deconstructed into simpler groups, but those that can't I have
called 'atoms of symmetry'. Almost all atoms of symmetry fit into a table,
but there are 26 exceptions, the largest of which is called The Monster. After its existence was predicted in
1973, and even before it was constructed seven years later, it had shown
strange connections with other parts of mathematics. These so-called 'moonshine' connections were subsequently linked with
the mathematics of string theory, a proposed way of combining gravity with
quantum theory. |
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