Physical law and the quest for mathematical understanding

Edward Witten

doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-02-00969-2

Physical law and the quest for mathematical understanding

Edward Witten

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

The theoretical physics of the first quarter of the twentieth century-centering around relativity theory and nonrelativistic quantum mechanics-has had a broad influence mathematically. The main achievement of theoretical physics in the following half-century was the development of quantum field theory or QFT. Yet the mathematical influence of QFT still belongs largely to the 21^st century, because its mathematical foundations are still not well-understood.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	21-29
Number of pages	9
Journal	Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society
Volume	40
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1090/S0273-0979-02-00969-2
State	Published - Jan 2003
Externally published	Yes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

General Mathematics
Applied Mathematics

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10.1090/S0273-0979-02-00969-2

Cite this

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Physical law and the quest for mathematical understanding

Abstract

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

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