My name is Mason Porter. I am a Professor in Nordita (Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics) and am Professor in Complex Systems in the Department of Mathematics at Stockholm University. Previously, I was a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at UCLA. Before that, I was Professor of Nonlinear and Complex Systems in the Mathematical Institute at University of Oxford. I was also a Tutorial Fellow of Somerville College. I am still a Senior Research Fellow of Somerville College.
Monday, February 02, 2015
Möbius Strips: Now Apparently Three-Dimensional
Today I found out about a new paper that reports the generation of Möbius strips of optical polarization, which is very exciting. Unfortunately, the paper's abstract starts out in a very depressing manner that makes me cringe: "Möbius strips are three-dimensional geometrical structures, fascinating for their peculiar property..." Nooooooo!
Although does need three dimensions embed a Möbius strip in an ambient (extrinsic) space, a Möbius strip is a two-dimensional manifold.
(Tip of the cap to Physics Today for their Facebook post of a popular article about the new discovery. Notice the comment about the number of dimensions in the correction. In this case, the popular piece has done better than the paper's abstract.)
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