Simon Burton
@fridaysimon.bsky.social
Quantum computing -- Lead R&D scientist at Quantinuum.
Ruth Kastner has some things to say about field theories..
November 18, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Ruth Kastner has some things to say about field theories..
Today's OEIS fishing expedition. The only question is how much RAM am i going to need to find the next number... Love these OEIS cliff-hangers! ARGGH
August 11, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Today's OEIS fishing expedition. The only question is how much RAM am i going to need to find the next number... Love these OEIS cliff-hangers! ARGGH
It's *a* graphic framework. I've been using 3d string diagrams for this stuff... Here is a laxator for a monoidal functor, which is the blue string. The monoidal product is the sheet layers... etc etc
August 3, 2025 at 4:41 PM
It's *a* graphic framework. I've been using 3d string diagrams for this stuff... Here is a laxator for a monoidal functor, which is the blue string. The monoidal product is the sheet layers... etc etc
Behold! A one-qubit quantum computer:
July 5, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Behold! A one-qubit quantum computer:
no don't kill it. Yes we need it.
June 23, 2025 at 3:02 PM
no don't kill it. Yes we need it.
James Dolan has a knack for describing higher mathematics using vivid language... not much of this has made it into written form, but there are a lot of old posts of his on google groups
May 4, 2025 at 2:32 PM
James Dolan has a knack for describing higher mathematics using vivid language... not much of this has made it into written form, but there are a lot of old posts of his on google groups
love these OEIS flamewars.. might have to wait a few more years to see if there's any followup.
April 17, 2025 at 1:18 PM
love these OEIS flamewars.. might have to wait a few more years to see if there's any followup.
new book alert... oh, these pictures look like fun
April 12, 2025 at 5:22 PM
new book alert... oh, these pictures look like fun
TIL: the geometric Langlands program is where love and perversion are united
April 11, 2025 at 5:34 PM
TIL: the geometric Langlands program is where love and perversion are united
It's full of gritty hard-core group theory and representation theory, but he religiously follows every bit of theory with an illustrative example. Awesome.
April 1, 2025 at 5:24 PM
It's full of gritty hard-core group theory and representation theory, but he religiously follows every bit of theory with an illustrative example. Awesome.
My favourite book on group theory just arrived in the mail! I had it shipped over from the US secondhand using biblio.
April 1, 2025 at 5:21 PM
My favourite book on group theory just arrived in the mail! I had it shipped over from the US secondhand using biblio.
we need more professional crackpots like this
March 10, 2025 at 7:18 PM
we need more professional crackpots like this
Mathematicians are much more humble, claiming only to know "a fifth root of unity":
March 7, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Mathematicians are much more humble, claiming only to know "a fifth root of unity":
Only a physicist would be so arrogant as to specify "the fifth root of unity". Here is one example:
March 7, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Only a physicist would be so arrogant as to specify "the fifth root of unity". Here is one example:
wup, the modular forms db now has finite groups !
January 6, 2025 at 4:35 AM
wup, the modular forms db now has finite groups !
Oh yeah, this guy gets it. Every subgroup of the cube reflection group. freethoughtblogs.com/atrivialknot...
December 19, 2024 at 10:29 PM
Oh yeah, this guy gets it. Every subgroup of the cube reflection group. freethoughtblogs.com/atrivialknot...
Jacob Bernoulli was hardcore..
December 18, 2024 at 1:41 PM
Jacob Bernoulli was hardcore..
In 1967 he made two short educational geometry films, "Dihedral Kaleidoscopes" and "Symmetries of the Cube". And I found these both recently uploaded on youtube! Here is a shot where he shows how to make a hexagonal tiling using three mirrors.
December 15, 2024 at 8:41 PM
In 1967 he made two short educational geometry films, "Dihedral Kaleidoscopes" and "Symmetries of the Cube". And I found these both recently uploaded on youtube! Here is a shot where he shows how to make a hexagonal tiling using three mirrors.
I've been really enjoying this biography of Coxeter, from 2006, just recently republished.
December 15, 2024 at 8:35 PM
I've been really enjoying this biography of Coxeter, from 2006, just recently republished.
The miracle octad generator takes each row of the 280 octads (the blue ones) and summarizes it into one entry, for example
December 3, 2024 at 12:22 PM
The miracle octad generator takes each row of the 280 octads (the blue ones) and summarizes it into one entry, for example
These 759 octads are organized in relation to a special chosen octad. Every octad has either 8, 4, 2, or 0 overlap with the special octad. These four classes have size 1+280+448+30=759.
December 3, 2024 at 12:14 PM
These 759 octads are organized in relation to a special chosen octad. Every octad has either 8, 4, 2, or 0 overlap with the special octad. These four classes have size 1+280+448+30=759.
Doing some counting: (7 choose 2) = num lines * (3 choose 2), so there are 7 lines here. For the S(5, 8, 24) we have every 5 element subset determines a unique 8 element subset, or *octad*. Doing the same calculation we find (24 choose 5) = num octads * (8 choose 5) gives 759 octads:
December 3, 2024 at 12:06 PM
Doing some counting: (7 choose 2) = num lines * (3 choose 2), so there are 7 lines here. For the S(5, 8, 24) we have every 5 element subset determines a unique 8 element subset, or *octad*. Doing the same calculation we find (24 choose 5) = num octads * (8 choose 5) gives 759 octads:
The Fano plane is a good example of a Steiner system: every two points determines a unique line. Each line is a 3 point set, and there are 7 points in total. So this is a S(2, 3, 7) Steiner system. (2/?)
December 3, 2024 at 11:59 AM
The Fano plane is a good example of a Steiner system: every two points determines a unique line. Each line is a 3 point set, and there are 7 points in total. So this is a S(2, 3, 7) Steiner system. (2/?)
This is the miracle octad generator (MOG) of Conway and Curtis. It is a kind of treasure map for the S(5,8,24) Steiner system, 24 bit Golay code, the Mathieu group M_24, and much more... (1/?)
December 2, 2024 at 2:38 PM
This is the miracle octad generator (MOG) of Conway and Curtis. It is a kind of treasure map for the S(5,8,24) Steiner system, 24 bit Golay code, the Mathieu group M_24, and much more... (1/?)