John Baez

Higgs Colloquium, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, October 23, 2026

Hidden Patterns in the Standard Model

One famous physics popularizer has claimed that while the Standard Model is "the most successful physical theory ever proposed, it is also one of the ugliest". Another possibility is that the Standard Model is more beautiful than we realize, and holds clues we do not yet understand. Here we review some attempts to find hidden patterns in the Standard Model, going back to the work of Georgi, Glashow, Pati and Salam but leading up to recent ideas connected to the octonions.

You can see my slides here.

For more, view my other talks on the Standard Model, or read these papers:

• John Baez and Paul Schwahn, The Standard Model Gauge Group from the exceptional Jordan algebra.
• John Baez, Endre Bokor and Latham Boyle, Jordan pair quantum theory and the Standard Model.
• John Baez, Three generations in E7.

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