PUZZLING SIMILARITIES BETWEEN AKAN/GYAMAN ADINKRA SYMBOLISM AND ADINKRA IN MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS [RESPONSE FROM SYLVESTER JAMES GATES #1 [1 Attachment]
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toyin adepoju
Feb 9, 2011, 3:31:37 PM2/9/11
to Charles Ogu, Yoruba Affairs, Odua, philosop...@yahoogroups.com, philosophi...@yahoogroups.com, Ayebia
From: Sylvester J. Gates Jr. <gat...@umd.edu>
Date: 9 February 2011 20:01
Subject: RE: PUZZLING SIMILARITIES BETWEEN AKAN/GYAMAN ADINKRA SYMBOLISM AND ADINKRA IN MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS
Dear Toyin,
Thank you for your message below.
For you and all your colleagues cc-ed on your communication, I have
attached to this message a document. I hope that you are able to down
load it successfully. These images are from my talk that appears at
the webpage
http://www.q2cfestival.com/play.php?lecture_id=7737
on-line. In this presentation, I attempted to provide an explanation for
non-physicists on how the mathematical Adinkras emerged as part of
a research program that I have been undertaking for over a decade.
A fairly complete documentation of the long series of paper, of which
the one with Faux was part, can be found at the webpage
http://math.bard.edu/DFGHIL/index.php?n=Main.Publications
on-line.
The beginnings of this line of development can be seen in the work done
with my student Lubna Rana. The earliest such work was completed in
1994 and it was quite well developed by 2002 when I wrote a paper with
my students William Linch and Joseph Phillips.
All of this work is purely mathematical and anyone can download free
copies of these works by going to the physics arXiv
http://arxiv.org/
---> find
and in the search window type gates. This will pull up all my papers
and by clicking on the correct titles shown at the Bard website, one
can find almost all of the papers and download them.
The paper with Faux simply was a way to use a graphical formulation
to condense the mathematics of all the previous works into a form that
make investigations even simpler. In fact, although the paper with Faux
marked the beginning of the development of these graphs, for which
Michael suggested the name `Adinkras,' in fact complete Adinkras were
only developed later within the context of the DFGHIL collaboration of
mathematicians and theoretical physicists I created for the purpose of
studying the long line of developments I had been undertaking. The
images that appear in the Faux-Gates paper are missing some impor-
tant features which were added in the DFGHIl works. Without a
mathematical foundation these diagrams alone would be unlikely to
have any interest among scientists or mathematicians.
I should also say that the suggestion of the name also had to do with
the fact that when Michael and I completed the paper, I was in Mali.
We had been trying to think of a name and when I mentioned my lo-
cation, that seem to trigger in Michael his recollection of his earlier
travels thru west Africa where and when he first learned of classical
Adinkras.
Note that the mathematical developments were totally isolated and
prior to my work with Michael and my visit to Mali. If I had not been
there, it is entirely possible that a different name entirely might have
been chosen.
So although you have found some beautiful similarities between some
of our mathematical Adinkras and classical ones, the mathematical foun-
dation for our graphs having been completed before the introduction of
the graphs means that the classical ones were not known to either me
nor my student when we created the foundations of the mathematical
Adinkras.
Our mathematical Adinkras really are a way of expressing the mathema-
tical relations that were found in my long (and continuing quest) to reach
the deepest possible understanding of the property known as supersym-
metry.
In the first three pages of the attached document, it is shown how to
begin with a square and then make it into either one or the other of
two of our mathematical Adinkras. The Adinkras and their associated
`super-differential' equations are shown on pages two and three.
The fourth pages shows how the analog of a square in a four dimen-
sional world (which is called a tesseract - see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract
) can be made into an Adinkra by applying the same rules we applied to
the square. From page five onward, there are simply samples of more
and more complicated and sophisticated mathematical Adinkras shown
without the accompanying equations.
As was pointed out in the cover story of 'Physics World,' in the June
2010 edition, this particular Adinkra is related to the Equations of Maxwell
which describe electricity and magnetism. It also has a relation to the
Dirac Equation which describes electrons. I would highly recommend
that you and your colleagues (interested in mathematical Adinkras)
read the story "Symbols of Power." I have tried there to tell the story
how my research was led into this remarkable direction. Anyone can
find the complete citation to this story by going to my homepage at
http://umdphysics.umd.edu/index.php/about-us/people/faculty/29-faculty/135-gates.html
on-line. Finally, there is a synopsis of the Symbols of Power" story
available at
http://rccommentary2.blogspot.com/2010/07/if-you-knew-susy.html
on-line. This blogger also adds his own commentary on the story.
Albert Einstein once said,
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own
reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contem-
plates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of
reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this
mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity."
The creation of mathematical Adinkras emerged by my simply having
never stopped trying to answer a simple question about the mathema-
tics called supersymmetry. If you read about me on the Wikipedia, you
can see I have been doing this since I was a young man at MIT. This
questioning process has caught up other people like my students (first
Lubna) and later others (like Michael) who have joined me. It has been
the driving theme of my research career and it feels like a question for
me to answer.
I hope this message will be clarifying for you.
All the best,
Jim
________________________________________
From: toyin adepoju [toyin....@googlemail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 11:41 AM
To: WoleSoyinkaSociety;
philosop...@yahoogroups.com;
philosophi...@yahoogroups.com;
FAU...@oneonta.edu; Sylvester J. Gates Jr.;Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 11:41 AM
To: WoleSoyinkaSociety;
philosop...@yahoogroups.com;
philosophi...@yahoogroups.com;
abolo; Tenka Media; yewande okuleye;
gbenga oduntan; Dafon Aime Segla Adjile
Subject: PUZZLING SIMILARITIES BETWEEN AKAN/GYAMAN ADINKRA
SYMBOLISM AND ADINKRA IN MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS
gbenga oduntan; Dafon Aime Segla Adjile
Subject: PUZZLING SIMILARITIES BETWEEN AKAN/GYAMAN ADINKRA
SYMBOLISM AND ADINKRA IN MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS
Physicists Michael Faux and Sylvester James Gates and their collaborators
have developed "Adinkras" which they describe as a "graphical technology
for supersymmetric representation theory". They name this visual technol-have developed "Adinkras" which they describe as a "graphical technology
ogy Adinkrammatics. Their work is in supersymmetry, a field in physics.
I encountered their work in the course of a search on the older classical
Adinkra<http://www.adinkra.org/index.htm> corpus of visual symbols de-I encountered their work in the course of a search on the older classical
veloped by the Gyaman of Cote d'Ivoire and the Akan of Ghana. I came
across Faux and Gates paper introducing their symbol system “Adinkras:
A Graphical Technology for Supersymmetric Representation Theory
<http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0408004>” published in Physical Review D,across Faux and Gates paper introducing their symbol system “Adinkras:
A Graphical Technology for Supersymmetric Representation Theory
vol. 71, Issue 6, id. 065002( 2004). There, they describe the role of visual
imagery in physics and explain their decision to name their system after
the Akan/Gayam Adinkra symbol corpus:
"There are important examples in which theoretical physics incorporates ele-imagery in physics and explain their decision to name their system after
the Akan/Gayam Adinkra symbol corpus:
gant motifs to represent mathematical conceptions that are vastly simplified
thereby.One such example is the wide-spread use of Feynman diagrams.
Another one of these is Salam-Strathdee superspace, a stalwart construction
which has proven most helpful in organizing fundamental notions in field theory
and in string theory... In this paper, we introduce a graphical paradigm which
shows some promise in providing a new symbolic technology for usefully re-
conceptualizing problems in supersymmetric representation theory.
The use of symbols to connote ideas which defy simple verbalization is perhaps
one of the oldest of human traditions. The Asante people of West Africa have
long been accustomed to using simple yet elegant motifs known as Adinkra sym-thereby.One such example is the wide-spread use of Feynman diagrams.
Another one of these is Salam-Strathdee superspace, a stalwart construction
which has proven most helpful in organizing fundamental notions in field theory
and in string theory... In this paper, we introduce a graphical paradigm which
shows some promise in providing a new symbolic technology for usefully re-
conceptualizing problems in supersymmetric representation theory.
The use of symbols to connote ideas which defy simple verbalization is perhaps
one of the oldest of human traditions. The Asante people of West Africa have
bols, to serve just this purpose. With a nod to this tradition, we christen our
graphical symbols as “Adinkras.”
I deeply admire the visual elegance of their work even though I dont under-graphical symbols as “Adinkras.”
stand most of what it means. I am puzzled, however, by the visual similari-
ties between their work and the older Akan/Gyaman Adinkra system. These
similarities emerge from the exact visual identity between one of their sym-bols and the older Adinkra symbol of Eban and less precise but close simi-
larities between one of their symbols and the Akan/Gyman Adinkra symbol
of Epa and inexact but suggestive relationships between another symbol of
theirs and the older Adinkra symbol of Nyansapon. I find these similarities
puzzling because both Faux and Gates have insisted, in my correspondence
with them, that their work is uninfluenced by the older Gyaman/Akan Adinkra
system.
A depiction of the visual similarities between the two systems along with the
Faux and Gates paper, are attached to this post.
Ever since I came across these similarities between 2007 and 2008, I have
had an ambivalent relationship with these correlations even though they fas-of Epa and inexact but suggestive relationships between another symbol of
theirs and the older Adinkra symbol of Nyansapon. I find these similarities
puzzling because both Faux and Gates have insisted, in my correspondence
with them, that their work is uninfluenced by the older Gyaman/Akan Adinkra
system.
A depiction of the visual similarities between the two systems along with the
Faux and Gates paper, are attached to this post.
Ever since I came across these similarities between 2007 and 2008, I have
cinate me, inspiring me to explore the possibilities they suggest of dialogue
between the ancient and the new systems as well as the mathematical and
other cognitive possibilities of classical Adinkra. These explorations of mine
are described in my essay on Adinkra in the Oxford Encyclopedia of African
Thought edited by Abiola Irele and Biodun Jeyifo.
Seeing a description of the Adinkra symbolism in physics on the Wikipedia
site on Adinkra<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adinkra_symbols> spurred mebetween the ancient and the new systems as well as the mathematical and
other cognitive possibilities of classical Adinkra. These explorations of mine
are described in my essay on Adinkra in the Oxford Encyclopedia of African
Thought edited by Abiola Irele and Biodun Jeyifo.
Seeing a description of the Adinkra symbolism in physics on the Wikipedia
to post this description of my puzzlement, freeing me from the ambivalence
I feel towards these similarities between both systems, and facilitating my
emotional freedom to post later my explorations of the mutual illumination
between classical and supersymmetric Adinkra.
Thanks
Toyin
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+I feel towards these similarities between both systems, and facilitating my
emotional freedom to post later my explorations of the mutual illumination
between classical and supersymmetric Adinkra.
Thanks
Toyin
S.J.Gates, Jr.
John S. Toll Professor of Physics and
Center for String and Particle Theory Director
University of Maryland Tel: 301-405-6025
Physics Department Fax: 301-314-9525
Rm. 4121 E-mail: gat...@wam.umd.edu
College Park, MD 20742-4111
http://umdphysics.umd.edu/index.php/about-us/people/faculty/29-faculty/135-g
ates.html
http://www.aaas.org/aboutaaas/awards/public/public2006.shtml
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~events/pls/Gates.shtml
http://nsbp.org/cgi-bin/nsbp.cgi?page=jgates
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