Friday, March 30, 2012

The Emperor, Darth Vader, and the 'Ultimate Ultimate' Theory of Physics

PASADENA—The theory is so obscure there’s not a Wikipedia page about it yet. It might be impossible to formulate mathematically. One theoretical physicist calls it the Emperor Palpatine of theories, even more powerful and inscrutable than the Darth Vader theory that he and others have been studying intensively. And yet it has a purity and elegance that makes them think it captures the deep essence of the natural world. “It’s this sort of ur-theory,” says Nima Arkani-Hamed of the Institute for Advanced Study.

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