Geometry, Topology and Dynamics Seminar
Theo Johnson-Freyd
Northwestern University
Where does the Spin-Statistics Theorem come from?
Abstract: The "spin-statistics theorem" is a physical phenomenon in which spinors --- (-1)-eigenstates of rotation by 360° --- are the same as fermions --- (-1)-eigenstates of switching two identical particles. Physicists usually understand this phenomenon as a fact about certain representations of the Lorentz group. In this talk I will give a very different mathematical "origin" of the spin-statistics theorem. I will explain that spin-statistics arises in precisely the same was as does the physical phenomenon of "unitarity", which in turn depends on a fundamental but nontrivial coincidence: the absolute Galois group of R happens to equal the group of connected components of the orthogonal group. This talk will assume no knowledge of physics.
Monday November 23, 2015 at 3:00 PM in SEO 636