In mathematics, monstrous moonshine, or moonshine theory, is a term devised by John Horton Conway and Simon P. Norton in 1979, used to describe the (then totally unexpected) connection between the monster group M and modular functions (particularly, the j function).
Read more about Monstrous Moonshine: History, Formal Versions of Conway's and Norton's Conjectures, The Monster Module, Borcherds' Proof, Why "monstrous Moonshine"?
Famous quotes containing the words monstrous and/or moonshine:
“Thus Satan talking to his neerest Mate
With Head up-lift above the wave, and Eyes
That sparkling blaz’d, his other Parts besides
Prone on the Flood, extended long and large
Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge
As whom the Fables name of monstrous size,
Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr’d on Jove,
Briarios or Typhon, whom the Den
By ancient Tarsus held, or that Sea-beast
Leviathan,”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“O ruddier than the cherry,
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O Nymph more bright
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—John Gay (1685–1732)