Ciro Santilli @cirosantilli 35

Calculus of variations is the field that searches for maxima and minima of Functionals, rather than the more elementary case of functions from $\mathbb{R}$ to $\mathbb{R}$.

Contains the first sporadic groups discovered by far: 11 and 12 in 1861, and 22, 23 and 24 in 1973. And therefore presumably the simplest! The next sporadic ones discovered were the Janko groups, only in 1965!

Each $M_n$ is a permutation group on $n$ elements. There isn't an obvious algorithmic relationship between $n$ and the actual group.

TODO initial motivation? Why did Mathieu care about k-transitive groups?

Their; k-transitive group properties seem to be the main characterization, according to Wikipedia:Looking at the classification of k-transitive groups we see that the Mathieu groups are the only families of 4 and 5 transitive groups other than symmetric groups and alternating groups. 3-transitive is not as nice, so let's just say it is the stabilizer of $M_{23}$ and be done with it.

One important quantum mechanics experiment, which using quantum effects explain the dependency of specific heat capacity on temperature, an effect which is not present in the Dulong-Petit law.

This is the solid-state analogue to the black-body radiation problem. It is also therefore a quantum mechanics-specific phenomenon.

Published as On the Relative Motion of the Earth and the Luminiferous Ether.

A 4D gradient with some small special relativity specifics added in (the light of speed and sign change for the time).

scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=5051&context=etd_theses proves that the Mathieu group $M_{24}$ is simple in just 200 pages. Nice.

Examples:

Server run on the current machine. That's how all websites are developed and born!

Open source driver/hardware interface specification??? E.g. on Ubuntu, a large part of the nastiest UI breaking bugs Ciro Santilli encountered over the years have been GPU related. Do you think that is a coincidence??? E.g. ubuntu 21.10 does not wake up from suspend.

Similar to quantum jump in the Bohr model, but for the Schrödinger equation.

The idea the the wave function of a small observed system collapses "obviously" cannot be the full physical truth, only a very useful approximation of reality.

Because then are are hard pressed to determine the boundary between what collapses and what doesn't, and there isn't such a boundary, as everything is interacting, including the observer.

The many-worlds interpretation is an elegant explanation for this. Though it does feel a bit sad and superfluous.

The Schrödinger equation Hamiltonian has to be a Hermitian so we will have only positive energies I think: quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/12113/why-does-a-hamiltonian-have-to-be-hermitian

Contains the full state of the quantum system.

This is in contrast to classical mechanics where e.g. the state of mechanical system is given by two real functions: position and speed.

The wave equation in position representation on the other hand encodes speed in "how fast does the complex phase spin around", and direction in "does it spin clockwise or counterclockwise", as described well at: Video "Visualization of Quantum Physics (Quantum Mechanics) by udiprod (2017)". Then once you understand that, it is more compact to just view those graphs with the phase color coded as in Video "Simulation of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation (JavaScript Animation) by Coding Physics (2019)".

Analogous problem to the secondary structure of proteins. Likely a bit simpler due to the strong tendency for complementary pairs to bind.