Triangle Seminars
Wednesday, 30 Sep 2026
TBA
📍 London
Alex Turzillo
(DAMTP)
Abstract:
TBA
TBA
Posted by: Elia de Sabbata
Model Theory and the Hypothesis of a Finite Universe
📍 London
Boris Zilber
(Oxford)
Abstract:
Could the apparently continuous world of mathematics and physics be an approximation to a fundamentally finite universe? Boris Zilber explores this question through model theory, a branch of mathematics that studies theories and their models.
The lectures introduce the notion of global approximation: rather than viewing a finite model simply as a local discretisation of a continuous theory, one asks whether a single large finite structure can approximate an entire continuous structure globally. Zilber will describe how this perspective leads to compact complex structures and discuss its possible implications for spacetime and fundamental physics. Examples will include finite cyclic models of spacetime, Lorentz symmetry, quantum mechanics and string-theoretic structures. The lectures will also consider the distinction between the global mathematical structure and the local coordinates and measurements reconstructed by an observer.
Boris Zilber is Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Logic at the University of Oxford. His research is in model theory, geometry and their connections with other areas of mathematics and physics. He is one of the founders of geometric stability theory and Zariski geometries, and of the study of transcendental functions by model-theoretic methods.
Could the apparently continuous world of mathematics and physics be an approximation to a fundamentally finite universe? Boris Zilber explores this question through model theory, a branch of mathematics that studies theories and their models.
The lectures introduce the notion of global approximation: rather than viewing a finite model simply as a local discretisation of a continuous theory, one asks whether a single large finite structure can approximate an entire continuous structure globally. Zilber will describe how this perspective leads to compact complex structures and discuss its possible implications for spacetime and fundamental physics. Examples will include finite cyclic models of spacetime, Lorentz symmetry, quantum mechanics and string-theoretic structures. The lectures will also consider the distinction between the global mathematical structure and the local coordinates and measurements reconstructed by an observer.
Boris Zilber is Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Logic at the University of Oxford. His research is in model theory, geometry and their connections with other areas of mathematics and physics. He is one of the founders of geometric stability theory and Zariski geometries, and of the study of transcendental functions by model-theoretic methods.
Posted by: Yang-Hui He