A New Kind of Symmetry Shakes Up Physics

Major physical advances from the last century—general relativity, the Standard Model and the hunt for the Higgs boson—all have symmetry to thank. A significant contribution to the present understanding of symmetry was made in 2014 by Nathan Seiberg, Charles Simonyi Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, along with past Members Davide Gaiotto (2007–2012), Anton Kapustin (1997–2001), and Brian Willett (2012–15).

Their paper, 'Generalized Global Symmetries', "demonstrated that the most important symmetries of 20th-century physics could be extended more broadly to apply in quantum field theory, the basic theoretical framework in which physicists work today."

Read more at Quanta.