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July 18, 2026

Octonions and the Standard Model (Part 15)

Posted by John Baez

Last time I described a way to get the Standard Model gauge group from the exceptional Jordan algebra. But that approach gave no obvious nice way to put the quarks and leptons into the picture. This new paper tackles that problem:

Jordan pairs and Jordan triples are two closely linked formalisms that generalize Jordan algebras. Our paper explains them in detail — and how they’re connected to geometry and quantum mechanics. Here I will mostly skip that wonderful story, so I can quickly explain the connection to the Standard Model.

Continue reading “Octonions and the Standard Model (Part 15)” …
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