Skip to main content
1 of 9
Post Made Community Wiki
Richard Stanley
  • 50.8k
  • 14
  • 155
  • 279

Most intricate and most beautiful structures in mathematics

In the December 2010 issue of Scientific American, an article "A Geometric Theory of Everything" by A. G. Lisi and J. O. Weatherall states "... what is arguably the most intricate structure known to mathematics, the exceptional Lie group E8." Elsewhere in the article it says "... what is perhaps the most beautiful structure in all of mathematics, the largest simple exceptional Lie group. E8." Are these sensible statements? What are some other candidates for the most intricate structure and for the most beautiful structure in all of mathematics? I think the discussion should be confined to "single objects," and not such general "structures" as modern algebraic geometry.

Richard Stanley
  • 50.8k
  • 14
  • 155
  • 279