Reminds me of 17 years ago... plus.maths.org/content/edit...

But it turns out that there are physical phenomena which possess symmetries that group theory can't describe (for example certain types of phase transition). And it's here that you need to reach for category theory. We'll report more on this soon! #maths #math #physics

Symmetries are usually described by an area of #maths called group theory, quick intro here plus.maths.org/content/grou... #maths #physics

That's because the concept of #symmetry lies at the heart of #physics (see for example this article plus.maths.org/content/symm...) #maths #math

But as we're currently finding out, category theory is exactly what you need in various areas of physics (we're learning this from participants of a research programme that is taking place at the Newton Institute) www.newton.ac.uk/event/bid/ #maths #math #physics

It usually refers to something called category theory. Here's a brief introduction plus.maths.org/content/math... #maths #math #physics

And here's a slightly longer #introduction to #quantum #computing plus.maths.org/content/how-...

#Quantum #computing is sophisticated but here's a quick introduction we produced recently plus.maths.org/content/math...

You can find out more about #quantum tunnelling (with some basic #maths) here: plus.maths.org/content/schr... #physics #NobelPrize #nobelprize2025

Such #quantum effects are usually only observed at very very small scales, but the laureates conducted experiments in which they demonstrated both tunnelling and quantised energy levels in a system big enough to be held in the hand. #physics #NobelPrize

#Quantum tunnelling is possible because in quantum mechanics particles can acquire energy from out of nowhere for very brief moments of time, which allows a particle to "tunnel" through an energy barrier #physics #NobelPrize

#Quantum mechanics is hard and quantum tunnelling is weird. But here's a basic intro that gives you a sense of both plus.maths.org/content/ridi... #physics #NobelPrize