Title: Rethinking Connes’ approach to the standard model of particle physics via non-commutative geometry
Speaker: Shane Farnsworth, Perimeter
Date: Tuesday, November 04, 2014
Time: 09:30am – 10:30am
Place: Seminar Room 313, Simons Center
View the Slides.
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Abstract: Connes has argued that non-commutative geometry (NCG) more aptly describes the standard model Lagrangian. Although his papers have generated enormous interest, many physicists are skeptical because: (i) NCG relies on a long list of axioms whose meaning is obscure to them; and (ii) the NCG construction of the standard model Lagrangian relies on a fishy step where 7 problematic terms must be set to zero, essentially by hand, to get the desired result. In this talk I discuss a simple reformulation of Connes’ notion of NCG that, remarkably, fixes both problems: the axioms are dramatically simplified and unified, while the 7 problematic terms
are precisely eliminated.