Conformal Symmetry: Finding New Physics in Scale Invariance

Modern physics is the study of symmetry. Everything from electromagnetism to the famed Higgs mechanism stems from fundamental symmetries. These have fancy mathematical names and even fancier math behind them, but the basic idea is the same. These are mathematical generalizations of normal transformations such as rotating. These symmetries describe fields (electric, magnetic, etc.). Most models of unification, i.e. string theory, use Poincare symmetry. This symmetry includes both translations and rotations. This means physics only cares about relative position, angle, velocity, etc. If I were to wake up in a windowless room that had been moved a mile north and rotated 90 degrees since going to sleep, I wouldn\u27t notice a difference. When this symmetry is broken into its mathematical essence, and certain assumptions are made, it turns into General Relativity. If there is another fundamental symmetry of the universe, perhaps it leads to new physics as well