Antony Garrett Lisi

Infobox_Scientist
name = Antony Garrett Lisi


image_width = 250px
caption = Antony Garrett Lisi in Iceland, for the 2007 FQXI conference.
birth_date = January 24, 1968
nationality = American
field = Theoretical physics
alma_mater = UCLA
UCSD
work_institutions = none: independent
known_for = An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything
Surfing

Antony Garrett Lisi (born January 24, 1968; uses the name Garrett by preferencecite web |url=http://sifter.org/~aglisi/a.html |title=A. |accessdate=2008-07-05 |author=A. G. Lisi |date=2008-07-05 |work=sifter.org ] ) is an American-born theoretical physicist and adventure sports enthusiast. Lisi is best known for his work, "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything," which proposes a unified field theory combining a grand unification theory of particle physics with Albert Einstein's general relativistic description of gravitation using the largest simple exceptional Lie algebra, E₈.

Lisi has a Ph.D. in physics, but has worked as an independent researcher rather than holding an academic position. He is a strong proponent of balance in life, particularly between scientific research and the enjoyment of the outdoors.

Biography

Early life

Born in Los Angeles and raised in San Diego, California, Lisi graduated the Cate School (south of Santa Barbara, California) in 1986. He learned to surf in San Diego, where he traveled between surf breaks in an old VW Bus. Lisi went on to receive two B.S. degrees with highest honors in physics and mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1991. He made several trips to Hawaii and, while enrolled as a graduate student in San Diego, traveled to Tahiti where he spent three weeks surfing Teahupoo,cite web |url=http://sifter.org/~aglisi/Surfing/surfing.html#water |title=Surfing |accessdate=2008-07-06 |author=A. G. Lisi |date=2008-07-06 |work=sifter.org ] considered to have some the heaviest waves in the world. Back in San Diego, Lisi received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, San Diego in 1999.cite web |url=http://sifter.org/~aglisi/Physics/CV.html |title=A. Garrett Lisi's C.V. |accessdate=2008-07-05 |author=A. G. Lisi |date=2008-07-05 |work=sifter.org ]

After the Ph.D.

After getting his Ph.D., Lisi left academia and moved to Maui — expressing his dissatisfaction with the state of theoretical physics:cite web |url=http://cosmicvariance.com/2007/11/16/garrett-lisis-theory-of-everything/ |title=Garrett Lisi’s Theory of Everything! |accessdate=2008-07-06 |author=Sean Carroll |date=2008-07-06 |work=Cosmic Variance ] quote|I got my PhD and looked at my options. I love differential geometry, general relativity, and particle physics. But the only options available then for a postdoc in those combined areas were in string theory, and I thought string theory was overly speculative. There are many really impressive aspects of strings — anomaly cancelation in particular — but there are other things that just seem wild and physically unsubstantiated. I had gotten lucky by investing my graduate stipend in a little company many thought was going out of business (AAPL), so I decided to go to Maui, learn to windsurf, and work on physics on my own. On Maui, Lisi volunteered as a staff member at a local Sudbury school, and split his time between working on his own physics research and surfing. After two years, he moved to a friend's house in Incline Village, overlooking Lake Tahoe, where he spent time snowboarding, hang gliding, and paragliding. After visiting friends and family in California, Lisi spent the summer traveling the Pacific coast of Mexico, then returned north to attend the Burning Man festival in Nevada. After living in Maui for another year, Lisi moved to Summit County, Colorado, where he continued his physics research and enjoyed the outdoors. During his two years in the Rocky Mountains, Lisi worked as a snowboard instructor at Breckenridge Ski Resort and as a scientific script consultant for a feature film. He also began daydreaming about building a custom RV and shipping it to Maui. That spring, Lisi purchased a Ford E-Series van and spent the following summer in a San Diego friend's woodworking shop, customizing the van interior to his own design. After another trip to Burning Man and through the Sierras, Lisi shipped the van to Maui and filled it with surf and windsurf boards. While living in the van with his girlfriend, Crystal Baranyk, Lisi taught physics classes at Maui Community College and worked as a hiking guide. After two years on Maui, Lisi says he was offered a tenure track teaching position at the local college, but turned it down (even though he was nearly broke) because it wouldn't have given him enough time for his physics research. At the same time, he submitted a grant application to the newly formed Foundational Questions Institute. Lisi says the decision to turn down the job offer and hope for FQXi funding was "a hell of a gamble."

Academic reentry

On July 31, 2006, Lisi was awarded an FQXi grant to develop his research in quantum mechanics and unification.cite web |url=http://www.fqxi.org/large-grants/awardee/details/lisi |title=FQXi awards: A. Garrett Lisi |accessdate=2008-07-05 |date=2006-07-31 |work=FQXi ] The grant allowed Lisi to devote his full attention to physics research and create his personal open scientific research wiki, [http://deferentialgeometry.org Deferential Geometry] .cite web |author=Antony Garrett Lisi |url=http://deferentialgeometry.org |title=Deferential Geometry |accessdate=2008-07-05 |date=2008-07-05 |work=Deferential Geometry ] On June 9, 2007, while living again in Tahoe, Lisi realized that the algebraic structure he had constructed (over ten years of research) to unify the standard model of particle physics with general relativity exactly matched the algebraic structure of the E₈ Lie group. Lisi said "The moment this happened my brain exploded with the implications and the beauty of the thing."

With support from FQXi, Lisi began communicating with other physicists more directly about his research. He visited John Baez, who wrote a "This Week's Finds" post about Lisi's work. [cite web |url=http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week253.html |title=This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 253) |accessdate=2008-06-15 |author=John Baez |date=2007-06-27 ] Lisi then traveled to the Loop Quantum Gravity conference in Morelia, Mexico where he gave a talk on June 25, 2007. At the conference he met Sabine Hossenfelder and Lee Smolin, and was invited to visit the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. From the Loop Quantum Gravity conference, Lisi reported: [cite web |url=http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=164403&highlight=morelia&page=3 |author=A. G. Lisi |title=Loops '07 conference |accessdate=2008-07-06 |date=2007-07-26 |work=Physics Forums ] quote|The LQG community is very friendly -- such great people. There are a myriad of ideas branching out from this group in all directions, but all are working towards the same thing and connecting their ideas in fascinating ways. It is a very fertile community. I think about half of PI is here -- it must be a fantastic place.

On July 21, 2007, Lisi traveled to the inaugural FQXi conference in Reykjavik, Iceland. Interest in Lisi's work spread through the quantum gravity community, and he was invited to give several academic talks. Lisi visited the Perimeter Institute in October, and posted his paper, "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything," to the physics arXiv on November 6, 2007. Discussions of Lisi's theory developed rapidly over most major physics blogs, and the story of Lisi's theory and personal history was reported quickly by many online and traditional media sources around the world. Lisi said "After the story broke, I awoke to Pandora's Inbox."

After the media attention

Spending the rest of the winter in Tahoe, Lisi presented at the TED Conference on February 28, 2008. Invited by a friend, Lisi went heliskiing in the Chugach Mountains near Valdez, Alaska during the end of April. Lisi then attended BarCamp San Diego on May 3, 2008, where he conducted a collaborative brainstorming session on the creation of a Science Hostel. Lisi spent the rest of May visiting the Perimeter Institute, and is currently traveling around California, having no permanent residence. Lisi stated he is "hopping around California for the next few months, visiting friends, before going to SciFooCamp, Burning Man, and back to Maui."

Physics research

Garrett Lisi's early work in theoretical physics included his publication of "A Solitary Wave Solution of the Maxwell-Dirac Equations" in 1995. He then began a decade long investigation into the geometric nature and origin of spinor fields, during which he posted several preprints to the arXiv, making steady progress.

Work on quantum mechanics

On May 8, 2006, in an arXiv preprint, "Quantum mechanics from a universal action reservoir," [cite arXiv |author=A. G. Lisi |eprint=physics/0605068 |title=Quantum mechanics from a universal action reservoir |year=2006 ] Lisi described how the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics can be derived from information theory and the existence of a universal action reservoir. [cite web |url=http://www.johnreilly.info/17Nov07.htm |title=This could end the String Theory industry |accessdate=2008-07-06 |author=John Reilly |date=2007-11-17 |work=The Long View ] At FQXi, Lisi said:quote|Quantum vibrations of a field are driven by a universal background of action - just as molecules of water are driven to motion when placed on a hot stove.

Deferential Geometry

Lisi is an early practitioner of open notebook science. [cite web |url=http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2008/06/pseudo_open_notebook_science.php |title=Pseudo Open Notebook Science? |accessdate=2008-07-06 |author=Dave Bacon |date=2008-06-26 |work=The Quantum Pontiff ] Lisi created his "personal wiki notebook in theoretical physics" — the Deferential Geometry website — by using TiddlyWiki and jsMath. Lisi uses this wiki to organize his active research notes in theoretical physics, referring to this as "open source physics."

An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything

Lisi's main work in theoretical physics is his Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything.cite arXiv |author=A. G. Lisi |eprint=0711.0770 |title=An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything |year=2007 ] Developed over ten years, this work culminated in the posting of a preprint of the same name to the physics arXiv on November 6, 2007. Lisi describes how gravity, the standard model bosons, and three generations of fermions can be unified as parts of an E₈ superconnection. This unified field theory attempts to describe all fundamental interactions that physicists have observed in nature, and stands as a possible theory of everything, unifying Albert Einstein's general relativity with the standard model of particle physics.

In response to the question of why the Universe should be controlled by Wilhelm Killing's E₈ structure, Lisi responded:quote|I think the universe is pure geometry - basically, a beautiful shape twisting and dancing over space-time. Since E8 is perhaps the most beautiful structure in mathematics, it is very satisfying that nature appears to have chosen this geometry.

After its publication, Lisi's story attracted a great deal of media attention. Numerous news sites from all over the world reported his new theory, also noting the unorthodox personal background of Dr. Lisi. About the initial reception of his model, Lisi commented:quote|OK, the hype (and my inbox) has gotten totally out of control. This is, after all, about an untested theory that may or may not turn out to be true. But, , it’s pretty damn amusing. Mostly, all this media attention just makes me want to go hide for fifteen minutes, and I hope to come back to see physicists pondering this E8 theory, despite the hype.

Lisi's theory has been applauded but also sharply criticized in the scientific community, with some favorable and unfavorable views falling along the partisan lines of the detractors and proponents of string theory.

Competition with string theory

Lisi's theory cast him into center stage in the debate over the merits of string theory — the competing and dominant contender for a theory of everything. Describing string theory and the related sociology, Lisi said:cite web |url=http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/107 |title=An Exceptionally Simple FAQ |accessdate=2008-07-02 |author=A. G. Lisi |date=2007-11-20 |work=FQXi forum ] quote|There are lots of good things about string theory. It appears to be quantizeable, and can accommodate gravity in a fairly natural way. It also has restrictions that come out, due to anomaly cancelation, that say what can and cannot be a "good" quantum string theory. Originally people thought this would be enough, when coupled with the right background manifolds, to get all the standard model particle fields to correspond to oscillations of a string. But it's never worked quite right. In order to get it to work at all, string theorists have to bend over backwards and put in all sorts of things by hand. This is the main warning sign that a theory doesn't correspond to nature. What happens is, a theory looks promising, so people invest time in developing it. If it looks like it's matching nature, that's great. But if it doesn't quite fit nature, people have already invested a lot of time in the theory, so instead of abandoning it, they try to revise it -- they add stuff and try to patch it up. But the more you have to add by hand, without any experimental guidance, the worse the theory looks and the less likely it is to be true about how nature works.

Adventure sports

Garrett Lisi is an adventure sports enthusiast — surfing, snowboarding, and windsurfing at the expert level as well as participating in many other adventure sports. In an interview for Wired News, Lisi says:quote|Surfing and snowboarding are what I do for fun -- to get out and play in nature. We live in a beautiful universe, and I wish to enjoy it and understand it as best I can. And I try to live a balanced life. Surfing is simply the most fun I know how to have on this planet. And physics, and science in general, is the best way of understanding how everything works. So this is what I spend my time doing. I do what I love, and follow my interests. Shouldn't everyone?

Lisi brings some of his physics to his sports activities. During graduate school and years in Maui, most of Lisi's surfboards were adorned with the wave equation as decorative art. And when riding an extra-long carving board, for alpine snowboarding, in Colorado and Tahoe, Lisi always wears a long lab coat. He has also become a sponsored team rider for an Oregon surfboard manufacturer, 42 Surfboards.

Although concentrating on surfing, windsurfing and snowboarding, Lisi participates in a wide variety of adventure sports. On his online journal, Lisi describes his experiences surfing, snowboarding, windsurfing, sailing, kitesurfing, mountain biking, skateboarding, motorcycling, cliff diving, rock climbing, hang gliding, paragliding, backpacking, water skiing, wakeboarding, flying, sky diving, and scuba diving. Speaking to Surfer Magazine, Lisi says:quote|I'm a hedonist, but a contemplative one. I want the deep pleasures in life. I want to look into a girl's eyes and know she loves me. I want to understand what others have thought about life, and put the pieces together into a picture that makes sense. I want to paddle as hard as I can, drop into the pit, crank a bottom turn, and pull in under the lip as it throws out -- and hoot like a madman after the ride. I want to figure out the pattern at the heart of the universe. And I want to lay twenty consecutive, fully laid out turns down a groomed black diamond on a carving board. So that's what I do. I try to live my daydreams.

cience Hostel

Lisi proposes the creation of a more casual kind of science institute — a Science Hostel — which he says "would essentially be a large house somewhere beautiful where theorists could live and work." Citing his experience living in Maui and the mountains of Tahoe and Colorado, Lisi says it is important to have opportunities for good hiking and things to do outside in attractive environments. Describing the idea more formally, Lisi says:cite web |url=http://sifter.org/~aglisi//sh.html |title=Science Hostel |accessdate=2008-07-06 |author=Antony Garrett Lisi |date=2008-07-06 |work=Science Hostel ] quote|The physical requirements for conducting scholarly research have changed dramatically with the rise of the internet. It is now viable for researchers with laptop computers to work autonomously -- with access to current articles and communication channels on par with the resources available at large universities. These new circumstances motivate the creation of a new kind of research enterprise: a Science Hostel. By providing places to live and work with other researchers, in beautiful locations, a Science Hostel could increase creative productivity and overall quality of life for scholars in the internet age.

Chronology of biographical articles and interviews

Garrett Lisi has been the subject of many significant biographical articles and interviews.

*October 13, 1999 - Garrett Lisi begins his online journal, "The Mauitian Chronicles."cite web |url=http://sifter.org/~aglisi/JournalG/ |title=The Mauitian Chronicles |accessdate=2008-07-02 |author=Antony Garrett Lisi |date=1999-10-13 |work=The Mauitian Chronicles ]

*August 6, 2007 - On her blog, "Backreaction," in "Garrett Lisi's Inspiration,"cite web |url=http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2007/08/garrett-lisis-inspiration.html |title=Garrett Lisi's Inspiration |accessdate=2008-06-15 |author=Sabine Hossenfelder |date=2007-08-06 |work=Backreaction ] Sabine Hossenfelder interviews Lisi about his views and theory.

*October 26, 2007 - In an article commissioned by FQXi, "Surfing the Folds of Spacetime,"cite news |author=Scott Dodd |title=Surfing the Folds of Spacetime |url=http://fqxi.org/community/download.php?url=/community/data/articles/Lisi_Garrett.pdf |work=FQXi article |format=PDF |date=2007-10-26 |accessdate=2008-06-15 ] Scott Dodd reports on Lisi's history and theory.

*November 14, 2007 - In The Daily Telegraph, Roger Highfield reports "Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything."cite news |author=Roger Highfield |title=Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2007/11/14/scisurf114.xml |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=2007-11-14 |accessdate=2008-06-15 ]

*November 15, 2007 - In New Scientist, Zeeya Merali reports "Is mathematical pattern the theory of everything?"cite news |author=Zeeya Merali |title=Is mathematical pattern the theory of everything? |url=http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/dn12891-is-mathematical-pattern-the-theory-of-everything.html |work=New Scientist |date=2007-11-15 |accessdate=2008-06-15 ]

*November 15, 2007 - For Fox News, Jim Patton reports "'Physics is Beautiful' And a few other thoughts from Garrett Lisi."cite news |author=Jim Patton |title='Physics is Beautiful' And a few other thoughts from Garrett Lisi |url=http://blogs.fox6.com/blogs/balancedviews/archive/2007/11/20/2194296.aspx |work=Fox News |date=2007-11-15 |accessdate=2008-07-02 ]

*November 16, 2007 - CBC News reports "Surfer makes waves with scientific 'theory of everything'."cite news |title=Surfer makes waves with scientific 'theory of everything' |url=http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/11/16/science-theory-everything.html |work=CBC News |date=2007-11-16 |accessdate=2008-07-02 ]

*November 16, 2007 - The Daily Galaxy reports "How a Surfer Dude Stunned the World of Science With the 'Theory of Everything'." [cite news |title=How a Surfer Dude Stunned the World of Science With the 'Theory of Everything' |url=http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/11/how-a-surfer--1.html |work=The Daily Galaxy |date=2007-11-16 |accessdate=2008-07-02 ]

*November 18, 2007 - User Friendly features Garrett in its Sunday morning comic, as a "Wave Mechanic."cite news |title=Wave Mechanic |url=http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20071118 |work=User Friendly |date=2007-11-18 |accessdate=2008-07-02 ]

*November 18, 2007 - In The Sunday Times, Steve Farrar reports on "Einstein on a snowboard."cite news |author=Steve Farrar |title=Einstein on a snowboard |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2889309.ece |work=The Sunday Times |date=2007-11-18 |accessdate=2008-07-02 ]

*November 19, 2007 - In Surfer Magazine, Scott Bass interviews Lisi in "ONE BIG THEORY: A Q & A w/ Surfing Scientist Garrett Lisi."cite news |author=Scott Bass |title=ONE BIG THEORY: A Q & A w/ Surfing Scientist Garrett Lisi |url=http://surfermag.com/features/onlineexclusives/garret-ToEqna/ |work=Surfer Magazine |date=2007-11-19 |accessdate=2008-07-02 ]

*November 20, 2007 - On an FQXi forum, "An Exceptionally Simple Personal FAQ,"cite web |url=http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/108 |title=An Exceptionally Simple Personal FAQ |accessdate=2008-07-02 |author=A. G. Lisi |date=2007-11-20 |work=FQXi forum ] Lisi provides his detailed responses to questions from the media.

*November 21, 2007 - In The Daily Telegraph, Roger Highfield reports "Surfer Dude's Theory of Everything - The Movie."cite news |author=Roger Highfield |title=Surfer Dude's Theory of Everything - The Movie |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/21/scisurf121.xml |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=2007-11-21 |accessdate=2008-07-02 ]

*November 22, 2007 - The Economist reports "Geometry is all." [cite news |title=Geometry is all |url=http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10170958 |work=The Economist |date=2007-11-22 |accessdate=2008-06-15 ]

*December 1, 2007 - In Surfer Magazine, Scott Bass lists Lisi as #3 in "Most interesting surfers of 2007: The Top Ten."cite news |author=Scott Bass |title=MOST INTERESTING SURFERS OF 2007: The Top Ten |url=http://www.surfermag.com/features/onlineexclusives/interesting-surfers-2007/ |work=Surfer Magazine |date=2007-12-01 |accessdate=2008-07-02 ]

*December 3, 2007 - In The San Diego Union Tribune, Brad Melekian reports "Physicist balances waves with world of science."cite news |author=Brad Melekian |title=Physicist balances waves with world of science |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071203/news_lz1s3surf.html |work=The San Diego Union Tribune |date=2007-12-03 |accessdate=2008-07-02 ]

*January 4, 2008 - The Edge Foundation includes Garrett's response to the question, "What Have You Changed Your Mind About?"cite web |url=http://edge.org/q2008/q08_5.html#lisi |title=Garrett Lisi's Inspiration |accessdate=2008-07-02 |date=2008-01-04 |work=Edge Foundation ]

*February 26, 2008 - Discover Magazine reports "Could the Next Einstein Be a Surfer Dude?" [cite news |title=Could the Next Einstein Be a Surfer Dude? |url=http://discovermagazine.com/2008/mar/13-e-nste-n |work=Discover Magazine |date=2008-02-26 |accessdate=2008-06-15 ]

*February 27, 2008 - In Wired Magazine, Kim Zetter reports "Surfer-Physicist's Unified Theory Leads to Fame, Backlash."cite news |author=Kim Zetter |title=Surfer-Physicist's Unified Theory Leads to Fame, Backlash |url=http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/02/ted_lisi |work=Wired Magazine |date=2008-02-27 |accessdate=2008-06-15 ]

*March 1, 2008 - In Scientific American, Graham P. Collins reports "Wipeout?"cite journal |last=Collins |first=Graham P. |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2008 |month=March |title="Wipeout?" |journal=Scientific American |volume= |issue= |pages=30-32 |id= |url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=wipeout-theory |accessdate=2008-06-18 |quote= ] In this article, Collins briefly describes Lisi's theory and the related discussion, referring to previous criticisms from Marcus Du Sautoy and Jacques Distler.

*March 1, 2008 - The Science Channel interviews Garrett in "Ten Quick Questions With... Garrett Lisi." [cite news |title=Ten Quick Questions With... Garrett Lisi |url=http://science.discovery.com/questions/garrett-lisi/garrett-lisi.html |work=Science Channel |date=2008-03-01 |accessdate=2008-07-02 ]

*April 1, 2008 - In Symmetry Magazine, Amber Dance reports on "Outsider Science."cite news |author=Amber Dance |title=Outsider Science |url=http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/cms/?pid=1000607 |work=Symmetry Magazine |date=2008-04-01 |accessdate=2008-06-15 ]

*May 1, 2008 - In Outside Magazine, Evan Ratliff writes "Has A Surfer/Snowboarder Who Lives In A Van Rewritten Physics? Maybe"cite news |author=Evan Ratliff |title=Has A Surfer/Snowboarder Who Lives In A Van Rewritten Physics? Maybe. |url=http://outside.away.com/outside/culture/200805/garrett-lisi-1.html |work=Outside Magazine |date=2008-05-01 |accessdate=2008-07-02 ]

*June 1, 2008 - In Men's Journal, James Owen Weatherall writes "No Strings Attached."cite news |author=James Owen Weatherall |title=No Strings Attached |work=Men's Journal |date=2008-06-01 ]

*July 21, 2008 - In The New Yorker, Benjamin Wallace-Wells writes "Surfing the Universe."cite news |author=Benjamin Wallace-Wells |title=Surfing the Universe |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/21/080721fa_fact_wallacewells |work=The New Yorker |date=2008-07-21 ]

References

External links

* [http://sifter.org/~aglisi/ Antony Garrett Lisi's home page]
* [http://deferentialgeometry.org Deferential Geometry] - Lisi's personal research wiki
* [http://usparc.ihep.su/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=a+Garrett+Lisi,+A Lisi's publications in high energy physics]