PASADENA The theory is so obscure there’s not a Wikipedia page about it yet. It might be impossible to formulate mathematically. One theoretical physicist calls it the Emperor Palpatine of theories, even more powerful and inscrutable than the Darth Vader theory that he and others have been studying intensively. And yet it has a purity and elegance that makes them think it captures the deep essence of the natural world. “It s this sort of ur-theory,” says Nima Arkani-Hamed of the Institute for Advanced Study.

I learned about this strange theoretical brainstorm yesterday while attending a conference at Caltech that has drawn the most intimidatingly brilliant group of people ever assembled in one room. I considered myself lucky when I could understand just the title slide of their presentations. They have come to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the aforementioned Darth Vader theory, known formally as “N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) theory”. The dark-lord comparison might lead you to believe the theory is irredeemably evil, but in fact theorists consider it their most sublime creation.