Symmetry and The Monster

Symmetry and the MonsterThis book describes a mathematical quest that began two hundred years ago in revolutionary France, led to the biggest collaboration ever between mathematicians across the world, and revealed the ‘Monster’ — not monstrous at all, but a structure of exquisite beauty and complexity. Told here for the first time, it is a story that involves brilliant yet tragic characters, curious number ‘coincidences’ that led to breakthroughs in the mathematics of symmetry, and strange crystals that reach into many dimensions. And it is a story that is not yet over, for we have yet to understand the deep significance of the Monster – and its tantalizing hints of connections with the physical structure of space-time. Once we grasp the full nature of the Monster, we may well have revealed a whole new and deeper understanding of our universe.

Symmetry Corner

Published by Oxford University Press in the UK, and the USA: hardback 2006, paperback 2007.

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