Timeline for Why does the monster group exist?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
31 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 4, 2023 at 13:49 | vote | accept | Leibniz's Alien | ||
| Oct 3, 2023 at 12:15 | comment | added | LSpice | We seem to have settled on this question remaining open, but anyway I propose a simple test: would we have left this question open if asked by Conway himself? As @TimothyChow points out, "why" questions are asked all the time, including right here on MO, and I can't imagine us rejecting such an intriguing, essentially, research programme from Conway. So why should we lose out on the discussion just because he's not here to ask it? | |
| Aug 27, 2023 at 18:36 | answer | added | Timothy Chow | timeline score: 16 | |
| Aug 24, 2023 at 0:02 | history | edited | Leibniz's Alien | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 269 characters in body
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| Aug 23, 2023 at 11:17 | history | edited | Rodrigo de Azevedo | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
deleted 1 character in body
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| Aug 23, 2023 at 11:09 | history | edited | Rodrigo de Azevedo | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
deleted 1 character in body
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| Aug 23, 2023 at 7:30 | comment | added | D.R. | I think related: mathoverflow.net/questions/38161/…, mathoverflow.net/questions/17617/…, math.stackexchange.com/questions/2427/… | |
| Aug 23, 2023 at 6:58 | comment | added | Mikhail Katz | @YemonChoi, I am planning to respond to your brief comment in a lengthy dissertation. | |
| Aug 22, 2023 at 23:06 | comment | added | Will Sawin | The questions I would ask about in 100 years might be the questions that I have the least idea of how anyone might hope to solve. The progress mathematics has made over the last 100 years is so great that these seem more relevant to ask about. The monster group specifically is the kind of question where, if an answer was found, Conway would expect to understand it (because it's a satisfying simple explanation, and in an area he was an expert in). | |
| Aug 22, 2023 at 22:53 | comment | added | Leibniz's Alien | @WillSawin I get what you mean, but then why would Conway expect progress to be made on this specific question in 100 yrs? | |
| Aug 22, 2023 at 20:34 | history | protected | Carlo Beenakker | ||
| Aug 22, 2023 at 18:37 | comment | added | Yemon Choi | @TimothyChow My vote to close was really motivated by en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandolini%27s_law | |
| Aug 22, 2023 at 16:20 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Aug 22, 2023 at 15:55 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | Also possibly related: An example of a proof that is explanatory but not beautiful? (or vice versa) (which mentions sporadic simple groups) and Excellent mathematical explanations and Explanatory vs Non-explanatory Proofs. | |
| Aug 22, 2023 at 15:39 | comment | added | Daniel Asimov | Possibly related: mathoverflow.net/questions/444175/…. | |
| Aug 22, 2023 at 15:38 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | @AlexM. Well, Conway evidently thought that the question could have a mathematical answer. It certainly seems that he thought the question could have some satisfactory answer, and I can't imagine that he would have been satisfied with a non-mathematical answer. | |
| Aug 22, 2023 at 15:05 | history | reopened |
Mikhail Katz Derek Holt Carlo Beenakker Timothy Chow Alec Rhea |
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| Aug 22, 2023 at 15:02 | comment | added | Alex M. | I doubt that the question "why does the Monster Group exist?" can receive a mathematical answer. Why do the natural numbers exist? Why do groups exist? But do they "exist", like this keyboard that I am typing on? Why do we exist? Do cats understand humans? I have voted to leave the question closed. | |
| Aug 22, 2023 at 12:22 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | I agree that technically, the question is opinion-based, but not in a way that I think demands closure. We can't know for sure exactly what Conway meant, but "why" questions of this kind are asked by research mathematicians all the time, always with the intent of eliciting mathematical facts rather than non-mathematical opinions. I am voting to reopen. | |
| Aug 22, 2023 at 10:14 | review | Reopen votes | |||
| Aug 22, 2023 at 15:06 | |||||
| Aug 22, 2023 at 10:14 | history | closed |
Yemon Choi Daniele Tampieri Derek Holt M.G. Max Horn |
Opinion-based | |
| Aug 22, 2023 at 9:50 | history | edited | Martin Sleziak |
added the tag (monster)
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| Aug 22, 2023 at 9:44 | answer | added | Carlo Beenakker | timeline score: 28 | |
| Aug 22, 2023 at 9:11 | comment | added | Mikhail Katz | @CarloBeenakker, your comment seems like a reasonable answer and should be posted as such. Conway wanted an explanation for this exceptional simple group beyond saying that this is the way the full classification comes out. The fact that the group arises naturally as a group of symmetries is an answer Conway may have appreciated. The closing votes are unreasonable. | |
| Aug 22, 2023 at 8:05 | comment | added | Olivier | "Therefore, I am trying to understand what he means by "why" [...] why can't the existence of the group be a coincidence ?" You know what? I think your question is exactly the answer to your question. | |
| Aug 22, 2023 at 5:37 | comment | added | GH from MO | Please use a high-level tag like "gr.group-theory". I added this tag now. | |
| Aug 22, 2023 at 5:37 | history | edited | GH from MO |
edited tags
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| Aug 21, 2023 at 21:06 | review | Close votes | |||
| Aug 22, 2023 at 10:14 | |||||
| Aug 21, 2023 at 19:51 | comment | added | Will Sawin | When one looks for a satisfying explanation of a mathematical fact, one usually doesn't know how to describe which explanations one would find satisfying before seeing the explanations. So it might not have been possible for Conway to precisely answer your question, let alone for anyone else to do so. | |
| S Aug 21, 2023 at 19:06 | review | First questions | |||
| Aug 21, 2023 at 19:27 | |||||
| S Aug 21, 2023 at 19:06 | history | asked | Leibniz's Alien | CC BY-SA 4.0 |