The periodic table of mathematical shapes is popular name given to a project to classify
Fano varieties. The project was thought up by Professor
Alessio Corti
Alessio Corti (born 1965) is a Professor of Mathematics at Imperial College London working in Algebraic Geometry.
Corti studied at the University of Pisa and Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, where he gained a diploma (Laurea) in 1987. He obta ...
, from the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College London. It aims to categorise all three-, four- and five-dimensional shapes into a single table, analogous to the
periodic table
The periodic table, also known as the periodic table of the (chemical) elements, is a rows and columns arrangement of the chemical elements. It is widely used in chemistry, physics, and other sciences, and is generally seen as an icon of ch ...
of chemical elements. It is meant to hold the equations that describe each shape and, through this, mathematicians and other scientists expect to develop a better understanding of the shapes’ geometric properties and relations.
The project has already won the
Philip Leverhulme Prize
The Philip Leverhulme Prize is awarded by the Leverhulme Trust to recognise the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising. The prize schem ...
—worth £70,000—from the
Leverhulme Trust, and in 2019 a
European Research Council
The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...
grant.
While it is estimated that 500 million shapes can be defined algebraically in four dimensions, they may be decomposable (in the sense of the
Minimal model program) into as few as a few thousand "building blocks".
See also
*
List of complex and algebraic surfaces
*
List of surfaces
This is a list of surfaces, by Wikipedia page.
''See also List of algebraic surfaces, List of curves, Riemann surface.''
Minimal surfaces
* Catalan's minimal surface
* Costa's minimal surface
* Catenoid
* Enneper surface
* Gyroid
* Helicoid
* Lid ...
*
Lists of shapes
*
List of mathematical shapes
*
List of two-dimensional geometric shapes
This is a list of two-dimensional geometric shapes in Euclidean geometry, Euclidean and other geometry, geometries. For mathematical objects in more dimensions, see list of mathematical shapes. For a broader scope, see list of shapes.
Generally co ...
*
Fano variety
References
External links
Fano Varieties and Extremal Laurent PolynomialsA collaborative research blog for the project.
Nature's building blocks brought to lifeDatabases of quantum periods for Fano manifolds by Tom Coates and Alexander M. Kasprzyk Geometric shapes
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