Mystic Crystal Revelation . . .

Amplituhedron
Illustration by Andy Gilmore
Quanta Magazine

If Natalie Wolchover is right in "A Jewel at the Heart of Quantum Physics" (Quanta Magazine, September 17, 2013), then we are approaching the mind's true liberation in quantum physics:

The revelation that particle interactions, the most basic events in nature, may be consequences of geometry significantly advances a decades-long effort to reformulate quantum field theory, the body of laws describing elementary particles and their interactions. Interactions that were previously calculated with mathematical formulas thousands of terms long can now be described by computing the volume of the corresponding jewel-like "amplituhedron," which yields an equivalent one-term expression.

Apparently, this amplituhedron enables physicists to calculate answers on paper that were previously too difficult for computers. To wit:

The amplituhedron looks like an intricate, multifaceted jewel in higher dimensions. Encoded in its volume are the most basic features of reality that can be calculated, "scattering amplitudes," which represent the likelihood that a certain set of particles will turn into certain other particles upon colliding. These numbers are what particle physicists calculate and test to high precision at particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

I don't really understand this, but the paragraph seemed to be saying something important, so I copied and pasted it for the benefit of the many individuals far smarter than I am.

And rather than embarrass myself attempting any summary, I'll just point to the illustration above, presumably the summary already summarized . . .