One emerging realization is that the essence of gauge theory [0] has revealed itself as an insight to some whom have learned to apply it beyond the realm of physics.
Eric Weinstein [1], managing director of Thiel Capital, has been advocating upgrading the current economic calculus with a quantitative model based on gauge theory that can better adapt to changing behavior and changes in consumer preferences across time (for example).
Eric has intimated that James Simons [2] discovered a secret (in the Peter Thiel sense of the word) related to gauge theory during the time Simons and C.N. Yang [3] (as in Yang-Mills Theory [4]) discovered the correspondences in what has become known as the "Wu-Yang Dictionary" [5], which later led to Simons founding Renaissance Technologies [6] in 1982 and is part of the secret-sauce in their mathematical models that has enabled them to dominate quantitative trading ever since. A quote from the 1975 paper:
...The mathematics of these results is in fact well
known to the mathematicians in fiber bundle theory.
An identification table of terminologies is given in
Sec. V. We should emphasize that our interest in this
paper does not lie in the beautiful, deep, and general
mathematical development in fiber bundle theory.
Rather we are concerned with the necessary concepts to
describe the physics of gauge theories. It is
remarkable that these concepts have already been
intensively studied as mathematical constructs.
See "Gauge Theory and Inflation: Enlarging the Wu-Yang Dictionary to a unifying Rosetta Stone for Geometry in Application - Eric Weinstein" [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5gnATQMtPg
Uh Eric told you this himself? Rentech is famously secretive it wouldnt surprise me if they went after anyone who even leaks the existence of specific sauce.
Eric Weinstein [1], managing director of Thiel Capital, has been advocating upgrading the current economic calculus with a quantitative model based on gauge theory that can better adapt to changing behavior and changes in consumer preferences across time (for example).
Eric has intimated that James Simons [2] discovered a secret (in the Peter Thiel sense of the word) related to gauge theory during the time Simons and C.N. Yang [3] (as in Yang-Mills Theory [4]) discovered the correspondences in what has become known as the "Wu-Yang Dictionary" [5], which later led to Simons founding Renaissance Technologies [6] in 1982 and is part of the secret-sauce in their mathematical models that has enabled them to dominate quantitative trading ever since. A quote from the 1975 paper:
See "Gauge Theory and Inflation: Enlarging the Wu-Yang Dictionary to a unifying Rosetta Stone for Geometry in Application - Eric Weinstein" [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5gnATQMtPg[0] Gauge Theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauge_theory
[1] Eric Weinstein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Weinstein
[2] James Simons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Harris_Simons
[3] Nobel Laureate C.N. Yang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_Chen-Ning
[4] Yang-Mills Theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang–Mills_theory
[5] Concept of nonintegrable phase factor and global formulation of gauge fields (AKA the Wu-Yang Dictionary) [pdf] http://www.indiana.edu/~jpac/QCDRef/1970s/Concept%20of%20non...
[6] Renaissance Technologies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Technologies
[7] The conceptual origins of Maxwell's equations and gauge theory, by C.N. Yang (2014) [pdf] http://www.physics.umd.edu/grt/taj/675e/OriginsofMaxwellandG...
Previous Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16325605