Surfaces So Different Even a Fourth Dimension Can’t Make Them the Same
For decades mathematicians have searched for a specific pair of surfaces that can’t be transformed into each other in four-dimensional space. Now they’ve found them. The post Surfaces So Different Even a Fourth Dimension Can’t Make Them the Same first appeared on Quanta Magazine
In geometry and the closely related field of topology, adding a spatial dimension can often have wondrous effects: Previously distinct objects become indistinguishable. But a new proof finds there are some objects whose differences are so stark, they can’t be effaced with a little more space. The work, posted at the end of May, solves a question posed by Charles Livingston in 1982 concerning two...
Originally published in Quanta Abstractions.
