Sundance Bilson-Thompson (CSSM)
CSSM
Friday, October 28
Seminar Room, First Floor, Physics, University of Adelaide
I will outline my recent research in combining preon models (which were popular in the early 1980s) with topological concepts based on the braid group. The result is an extremely simple model (called the Helon Model) which reproduces leptons, quarks, the electromagnetic, weak, and colour interactions, and leads in an ab initio manner to several well-know conservation laws. Recently Lee Smolin proposed that such braided structures may arise in Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG). This opens the exciting prospect of a single theory which gives rise to all known particles, particle properties, and interactions, without the need for extra dimensions or other unobserved extraneous features.