Weirdly, the octonions can describe qutrits, but not quantum systems with more than 3 alternative ways to be.
So there's something special about octonionic qutrits - and it turns out that the symmetries in the gauge group of the Standard Model are all symmetries of an octonionic qutrit!
(4/n)
Now, not every symmetry of an octonionic qutrit is a symmetry of the Standard Model. But those that do have a simple description.
They are those that restrict to give symmetries of an ordinary qutrit sitting inside the octonionic qutrit... and an ordinary qubit sitting inside that!
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When I worked in Singapore at the Centre of Quantum Technologies I went to Cambodia and visited Ta Prohm, an old temple near Angkor Wat. You may have seen it in "Tomb Raider".
As nature regains control, it beautifies what it ruins.
In quantum information theory we often talk about qubits. But we also talk about qutrits, where a quantum system has 3 alternative ways to be, instead of just two. We can also study systems with more than 3 alternative ways to be.
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This whole picture is a photo! It's the sky as viewed through a 6-meter-wide hole at the top of James Turrell's huge new installation The Dome.
The light inside this dome keeps changing - and so does the color of the sky, as the day goes by. People like to lie in the dome and stare up.
Qubits and qutrits are usually described using complex numbers. But we can also do quantum mechanics using other number systems. The options have been mapped out, and the largest allowed number system for this purpose is called the 'octonions'.
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All this suggests an intriguing connection between the Standard Model and quantum information, where the octonions lie in the background, but we mainly see the complex numbers.
Or, all of this could be just a coincidence.
Thanks to @gro-tsen.bsky.social for helping us out!
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Nobody knows how many sets you need to chop up a square and rearrange them to form a circle of equal area!!
I'm talking Borel sets - @arula-ratnakar.bsky.social's favorite kind of set. Marks and Unger proved it can be done. Here Marks claims you can do it with ~10²⁰⁰. But how many do you need?
Paul Schwahn and I have found a new way to understand the symmetry group of the current best theory of particle physics: the so-called 'gauge group of the Standard Model'.
This group is well-known but still mysterious. It seems random. But it's connected to quantum information.
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A giant underground eye is spying on elusive particles…and it has already made a big result!
JUNO — a huge sphere with 20,000 tonnes of transparent liquid buried in China — delivered impressive #antineutrino measurements with its first 59 days of data (late 2025). 🔭🧪⚛️
juno.ihep.cas.cn