Mathematician's Century-Old Secrets Unlocked

[JSngry]

http://news.yahoo.com/mathematicians-century-old-secrets-unlocked-171554694.html;_ylt=ApH15WItG08.gol4U2rg7HJtzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTUwcWxlczVuBGNjb2RlA2N0LmMEbWl0A0FydGljbGUgTW9zdCBQb3B1bGFyBHBrZwMyN2UzNjJhMC1hN2M4LTM0MjItODI1NC0xZTVjNDIyYmUwOTEEcG9zAzQEc2VjA01lZGlhQkxpc3RNaXhlZE1vc3RQb3B1bGFyQ0FUZW1wBHZlcgNhZjAwOGRlMS01MDQ5LTExZTItYjZlZC1mMzY3Y2ZkM2RmYzk-;_ylg=X3oDMTJtZ2FsMmlwBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDZjYwZmE0ZmUtMTQyYS0zMDkzLWE0YjMtNzlhODM4MjBkMjhlBHBzdGNhdAN1LXMEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdl;_ylv=3

Ramanujan believed that 17 new functions he discovered were "mock modular forms" that looked like theta functions when written out as an infinte sum (their coefficients get large in the same way), but weren't super-symmetric. Ramanujan, a devout Hindu, thought these patterns were revealed to him by the goddess Namagiri.

Ramanujan died before he could prove his hunch. But more than 90 years later, Ono and his team proved that these functions indeed mimicked modular forms, but don't share their defining characteristics, such as super-symmetry.

The expansion of mock modular forms helps physicists compute the entropy, or level of disorder, of black holes.

No, I don't really understand it. But it sure sounds cool.

[BruceH]

I read about this, too. It always fascinates me how abstract mathematic patterns, originally dreamed up just for their sheer formal beauty, eventually find some real-world use. And no, I don't really understand any of it either.