The Strangest Numbers in String Theory
John Baez and John Huerta
May 1, 2011
Ever wonder why superstrings like to live in 10 dimensions? One reason
is an 8-dimensional number system called the octonions:
If you want to see how the Scientific American editing transformed
our original manuscript with top-notch editing but also added more of
a pro-string-theory slant, you can compare the original.
For more details, see:
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John Baez, The Octonions, Bull. Amer.
Math. Soc. 39 (2002), 145-205.
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John Baez and John Huerta,
Division algebras and
supersymmetry I.
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John Baez and John Huerta,
Division algebras and
supersymmetry II.
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John Huerta,
Division algebras
and supersymmetry III.
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John Huerta,
Division algebras
and supersymmetry IV.
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John Huerta, Division Algebras, Supersymmetry and Higher Gauge Theory, Ph.D. thesis, U.C. Riverside,
2011.
© 2011 John Baez and John Baez
baez@math.removethis.ucr.andthis.edu
