This definitely calls for celebration in the whole scientific community! Perseverance, a lot of patience, a team of 18 brilliant mathematicians and computer scientists, 64 Gb of RAM: the result is mapping E8, the largest among the exceptional simple Lie groups. Here’s the press release of the American Institute of Mathematics. And here, some details of the computation. For a lot more information check the Atlas of Lie Groups and Representations.
Update (same day): the 18-people team involved in the breakthrough (Dan Ciubotaru, a Romanian, is one of the members)
Update 26th of March: Razvan Florian posted my note about Ciubotaru as news on Ad Astra. Science also had as news this fantastic breakthrough, on March 23rd.
