Symmetry and the Monster: One of the greatest quests of mathematics

by Mark Ronan

Imagine a giant snowflake in 196,884 dimensions...This is the story of a mathematical quest that began two hundred years ago in revolutionary France, led to the biggest collaboration ever between mathematicians across the world, and revealed the 'Monster' - not monstrous at all, but a structure of exquisite beauty and complexity. Told here for the first time in accessible prose, it is a story that involves brilliant yet tragic characters, curious number 'coincidences' that led to breakthroughs in the mathematics of symmetry, and strangecrystals that reach into many dimensions. And it is a story that is not yet over, for we have yet to understand the deep significance of the Monster - and its tantalizing hints of connections with the physical structure of spacetime. Once we understand the full nature of the Monster, we may well haverevealed a whole new and deeper understanding of the nature of our Universe.

Genres: Mathematics, Nonfiction

264 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 18, 2006

Reviews

[John Badger · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book for the history of group theory, in an interesting way, but it’s designed to be skimmed rather than explaining much in detail. Quite an original type of book, but I felt it was too shallow and fast in glossing over ideas