Cohl Furey, also known as Nichol Furey, is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

mathematical physicist Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the developmen ...

Career

Furey has a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located ...

(2005), Master's degree from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

(2006) and a Ph.D in theoretical physics from the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...

(2015). She was a research fellow at the University of Cambridge from 2016 to 2019 and spent a few months at the

African Institute for Mathematical Sciences The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) is a tertiary education and research institute in Muizenberg, South Africa, established in September 2003, and an associated network of linked institutes in Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon, Tanza ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...

. Since 2020, she has been at the

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (german: link=no, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public university, public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established ...

on a Freigeist-Fellowship by the Volkswagen Foundation. Her main interests are

division algebra In the field of mathematics called abstract algebra, a division algebra is, roughly speaking, an algebra over a field in which division, except by zero, is always possible. Definitions Formally, we start with a non-zero algebra ''D'' over a f ...

Clifford algebra In mathematics, a Clifford algebra is an algebra generated by a vector space with a quadratic form, and is a unital associative algebra. As -algebras, they generalize the real numbers, complex numbers, quaternions and several other hyperc ...

s, and

Jordan algebra In abstract algebra, a Jordan algebra is a nonassociative algebra over a field whose multiplication satisfies the following axioms: # xy = yx (commutative law) # (xy)(xx) = x(y(xx)) (). The product of two elements ''x'' and ''y'' in a Jordan al ...

s, and their relation to

particle physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and ...

. Her work focuses on finding an underlying mathematical structure to the

Standard Model The Standard Model of particle physics is the theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces ( electromagnetic, weak and strong interactions - excluding gravity) in the universe and classifying all known elementary particles. I ...

. She is most noted for her work on

octonion In mathematics, the octonions are a normed division algebra over the real numbers, a kind of hypercomplex number system. The octonions are usually represented by the capital letter O, using boldface or blackboard bold \mathbb O. Octonions hav ...

s. She has worked on attempting to obtain the Standard Model of particle physics from octonionic constructions. In her 2018 paper "''SU''(3) × ''SU''(2) × ''U''(1) ( × ''U''(1) ) as a symmetry of division algebraic ladder operators," according to ''

Quanta Magazine ''Quanta Magazine'' is an editorially independent online publication of the Simons Foundation covering developments in physics, mathematics, biology and computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and i ...

'', "she consolidated several findings to construct the full Standard Model symmetry group,

SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1) This article describes the mathematics of the Standard Model of particle physics, a gauge quantum field theory containing the internal symmetries of the unitary product group . The theory is commonly viewed as describing the fundamental set o ...

, for a single generation of particles, with the math producing the correct array of electric charges and other attributes for an

electron The electron (, or in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary partic ...

neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of ) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass ...

, three

up quark The up quark or u quark (symbol: u) is the lightest of all quarks, a type of elementary particle, and a significant constituent of matter. It, along with the down quark, forms the neutrons (one up quark, two down quarks) and protons (two up qua ...

s, three

down quark The down quark or d quark (symbol: d) is the second-lightest of all quarks, a type of elementary particle, and a major constituent of matter. Together with the up quark, it forms the neutrons (one up quark, two down quarks) and protons (two u ...

s and their anti-particles. The math also suggests a reason why

electric charge Electric charge is the physical property of matter that causes charged matter to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. Electric charge can be ''positive'' or ''negative'' (commonly carried by protons and electrons respecti ...

is quantized in discrete units — essentially, because whole numbers are." In 2022 together with Mia Hughes, she linked the

symmetry breaking In physics, symmetry breaking is a phenomenon in which (infinitesimally) small fluctuations acting on a system crossing a critical point decide the system's fate, by determining which branch of a bifurcation is taken. To an outside observ ...

in physics to division algebras including octonions.

Media recognition

In 2019, ''

Wired.com ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fran ...

'' listed her in their article "10 Women in Science and Tech Who Should Be Household Names".

Notable publications

* * C. Furey,
Three generations, two unbroken gauge symmetries, and one eight-dimensional algebra
, Phys. Lett. B, 785 (2018) p. 84-89 (See addendum, arXiv version * C. Furey,
SU(3)C x SU(2)L x U(1)Y ( x U(1)X ) as a symmetry of division algebraic ladder operators
, Eur. Phys. J. C, 78 5 (2018) 375 * C. Furey, "A demonstration that electroweak theory could violate parity automatically (leptonic case)", Int.J.Mod.Phys.A, (2018) * C. Furey,
Standard model physics from an algebra?
, PhD thesis,

, rXiv:1611.09182* C. Furey,
Charge quantization from a number operator
, Phys. Lett. B, 742 (2015), pp. 195–199 * C. Furey,
Generations: Three prints, in colour
, JHEP 10 (2014) 046 rXiv:1405.4601 hep-th* C. Furey,
Towards a unified theory of ideals
, Phys. Rev. D 86 (2012) 025024, rXiv:1002.1497 hep-th* Furey, DeBenedictis,
Wormhole throats in Rm gravity
, Class. Quantum Grav. 22 (2005) 313–322, rXiv:gr-qc/0410088

References

External links

*
Cohl Furey at SciTalks

Cohl Furey at The Mathematics Genealogy Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Furey, Cohl Canadian mathematicians Canadian physicists Canadian women mathematicians Canadian women physicists Living people Mathematical physicists University of Waterloo alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Canadian expatriate academics in the United Kingdom Fellows of Trinity Hall, Cambridge