John Baez's guest appearances

John Baez

Long Now: Seminars About Long-term Thinking

Startup Talk with Millard & Andrew

The Cartesian Cafe

Sam Harris

Daniel Kahneman

Steven Pinker

Dorie Clark

Tiffany Shlain

Peter Diamandis

David Eagleman

Michael Pollan

Jared Diamond

Lawrence Lessig

Jane McGonigal

Melissa Alexander

Sara Seager

Rick Doblin

Kevin Kelly

OwlTail

John Baez is a mathematical physicist, professor of mathematics at UC Riverside, a researcher at the Centre for Quantum Technologies in Singapore, and a researcher at the Topos Institute in Berkeley, CA. John has worked on an impressively wide range of topics, pure and applied, ranging from loop quantum gravity, applications of higher categories to physics, applied category theory, environmental issues and math related to engineering and biology, and most recently on applying network theory to scientific software. Additionally, John is a prolific writer and blogger. This first began with John’s column This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics, which ran 300 issues between 1993 and 2010, which then continued in the form of his ongoing blog Azimuth. Last but not least, John is also a host and contributor of the popular blog The n-category Cafe. In this episode, we dive into John Baez and John Huerta’s paper “The Algebra of Grand Unified Theories” which was awarded the Levi Conant Prize in 2013. The paper gives a crash course in the representation theory underlying the Standard Model of particle physics and its three most well known Grand Unified Theories (GUTs): the SU(5), SO(10) (aka Spin(10)), and Pati-Salam theories. The main result of Baez-Huerta is that the particle representations underlying the three GUTs can in fact be unified via a commutative diagram. We dive deep into the numerology of the standard model to see how the SU(5) theory naturally arises. We then make brief remarks about SO(10) and Pati-Salam theories in order to state the Baez-Huerta theorem about their organization into a commutative square: a unification among grand unifications! Notes: While we do provide a crash course on SU(2) and spin, some representation theory jargon is used at times in our discussion. Those unfamiliar should just forge ahead! We work in Euclidean signature instead of Lorentzian signature. Other than keeping track of minus signs, no essential details are changed. Part I. Introduction00:00: Introduction 05:50: Climate change 09:40: Crackpot index 14:50: Eric Weinstein, Brian Keating, Geometric Unity 18:13: Overview of “The Algebra of Grand Unified Theories” paper 25:40: Overview of Standard Model and GUTs 34:25: SU(2), spin, isospin of nucleons 40:22: SO(4), Spin(4), double cover 44:24: three kinds of spinPart II. Zoology of Standard Model49:35: electron and neutrino 58:40: quarks 1:04:51: the three generations of the Standard Model 1:08:25: isospin quantum numbers 1:17:11: U(1) representations (“charge”) 1:29:01: hypercharge 1:34:00: strong force and color 1:36:50: SU(3) 1:40:45: antiparticlesPart III. SU(5) numerology1:41:16: 32 = 2^5 particles 1:45:05: Mapping SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) to SU(5) and hypercharge matching 2:05:17: Exterior algebra of C^5 and more hypercharge matching 2:37:32: SU(5) rep extends Standard Model repPart IV. How the GUTs fit together2:41:42: SO(10) rep: brief remarks 2:46:28: Pati-Salam rep: brief remarks 2:47:17: Commutative diagram: main result 2:49:12: What about the physics? Spontaneous symmetry breaking and the Higgs mechanism    Twitter: @iamtimnguyen Webpage: http://www.timothynguyen.org If you would like to support this series and future such projects: Paypal: tim@timothynguyen.org Bitcoin: 33thftjoPTHFajj8wJFcCB9sFiyQLFVp8S Ethereum: 0x166a977F411d6f220cF8A56065D16B4FF08a246D

John Baez is a mathematical physicist, professor of mathematics at UC Riverside, a researcher at the Centre for Quantum Technologies in Singapore, and a researcher at the Topos Institute in Berkeley, CA. John has worked on an impressively wide range of topics, pure and applied, ranging from loop quantum gravity, applications of higher categories to physics, applied category theory, environmental issues and math related to engineering and biology, and most recently on applying network theory to scientific software. Additionally, John is a prolific writer and blogger. This first began with John’s column This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics, which ran 300 issues between 1993 and 2010, which then continued in the form of his ongoing blog Azimuth. Last but not least, John is also a host and contributor of the popular blog The n-category Cafe.  In this episode, we dive into John Baez and John Huerta’s paper “The Algebra of Grand Unified Theories” which was awarded the Levi Conant Prize in 2013. The paper gives a crash course in the representation theory underlying the Standard Model of particle physics and its three most well known Grand Unified Theories (GUTs): the SU(5), SO(10) (aka Spin(10)), and Pati-Salam theories. The main result of Baez-Huerta is that the particle representations underlying the three GUTs can in fact be unified via a commutative diagram. We dive deep into the numerology of the standard model to see how the SU(5) theory naturally arises. We then make brief remarks about SO(10) and Pati-Salam theories in order to state the Baez-Huerta theorem about their organization into a commutative square: a unification among grand unifications!  Notes:  <ol><li> While we do provide a crash course on SU(2) and spin, some representation theory jargon is used at times in our discussion. Those unfamiliar should just forge ahead! </li> <li> We work in Euclidean signature instead of Lorentzian signature. Other than keeping track of minus signs, no essential details are changed.  </li></ol>Part I. Introduction <ul><li> 00:00: Introduction </li> <li> 05:50: Climate change </li> <li> 09:40: Crackpot index </li> <li> 14:50: Eric Weinstein, Brian Keating, Geometric Unity </li> <li> 18:13: Overview of “The Algebra of Grand Unified Theories” paper </li> <li> 25:40: Overview of Standard Model and GUTs </li> <li> 34:25: SU(2), spin, isospin of nucleons 40:22: SO(4), Spin(4), double cover </li> <li> 44:24: three kinds of spin </li></ul>Part II. Zoology of Standard Model <ul><li> 49:35: electron and neutrino </li> <li> 58:40: quarks </li> <li> 1:04:51: the three generations of the Standard Model </li> <li> 1:08:25: isospin quantum numbers </li> <li> 1:17:11: U(1) representations (“charge”) </li> <li> 1:29:01: hypercharge </li> <li> 1:34:00: strong force and color </li> <li> 1:36:50: SU(3) </li> <li> 1:40:45: antiparticles </li></ul>Part III. SU(5) numerology <ul><li> 1:41:16: 32 = 2^5 particles </li> <li> 1:45:05: Mapping SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) to SU(5) and hypercharge matching </li> <li> 2:05:17: Exterior algebra of C^5 and more hypercharge matching </li> <li> 2:37:32: SU(5) rep extends Standard Model rep </li></ul>Part IV. How the GUTs fit together <ul><li> 2:41:42: SO(10) rep: brief remarks </li> <li> 2:46:28: Pati-Salam rep: brief remarks </li> <li> 2:47:17: Commutative diagram: main result </li> <li> 2:49:12: What about the physics? Spontaneous symmetry breaking and the Higgs mechanism </li> </ul> Twitter: @iamtimnguyen Webpage: <a href="http://www.timothynguyen.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.timothynguyen.org</a> If you would like to support this series and future such projects: Paypal: tim@timothynguyen.org Bitcoin: 33thftjoPTHFajj8wJFcCB9sFiyQLFVp8S Ethereum: 0x166a977F411d6f220cF8A56065D16B4FF08a246D

John Baez | The Algebra of Grand Unified Theories

Frustrated Architect Mortgages His Home to Start Videogame Company. As One Does. John Baez cofounded The Behemoth, a successful, profitable, San Diego video game company. John Baez is the President and Co-Founder of The Behemoth, an award winning independent console development company that has been in business for over 14 years. Previously to co-founding The … Continue reading "Ep14: John Baez (The Behemoth) – Frustrated Architect Mortgages His Home to Start Videogame Company. As One Does."

Frustrated Architect Mortgages His Home to Start Videogame Company. As One Does. John Baez cofounded The Behemoth, a successful, profitable, San Diego video game company. John Baez is the President and Co-Founder of The Behemoth, an award winning independent console development company that has been in business for over 14 years. Previously to co-founding The … <a href="http://startuptalkpodcast.com/2017/05/22/ep14-john-baez-the-behemoth-frustrated-architect-mortgages-his-home-to-start-videogame-company-as-one-does/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Continue reading "Ep14: John Baez (The Behemoth) – Frustrated Architect Mortgages His Home to Start Videogame Company. As One Does."</a>

Ep14: John Baez (The Behemoth) – Frustrated Architect Mortgages His Home to Start Videogame Company. As One Does.

This graphic extravaganza from mathematical physicist John Baez shows not only humanity's nested time dimensions but how we expand our time perspective to understand and solve crises. Baez's famed online column, "This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics," which began in 1993, was an influential pioneer of the blog genre.

John Baez: Zooming Out in Time