Speakers: DAVID BORTHWICK & SKIP GARIBALDI (Emory University)
Title: Did a 1-dimensional magnet detect a 248-dimensional Lie algebra?
Abstract: About two years ago, a team of physicists reported in Science that they had observed "evidence for E8 symmetry" in the laboratory. This is a startling announcement because E8 is such a complicated --- and large! --- object, it is hard to guess how measuring a few numbers could pin it down. This talk will summarize what the physicists did and how it is connected with E8.