FusionOfTheoreticalPhysicsWithMathematicsAtIHESOrg 2009-01-08 14:29:04 2009-01-08 14:32:56 Topic physical mathematics IHES Crafoord prize theoretical physics fusion with mathematics % this is the default PlanetPhysics preamble. as your knowledge % of TeX increases, you will probably want to edit this, but % it should be fine as is for beginners. % almost certainly you want these \usepackage{amsmath, amssymb, amsfonts, amsthm, amscd, latexsym} % there are many more packages, add them here as you need them % define commands here \usepackage[mathscr]{eucal} \theoremstyle{plain} \newtheorem{lemma}{Lemma}[section] \newtheorem{proposition}{Proposition}[section] \newtheorem{theorem}{Theorem}[section] \newtheorem{corollary}{Corollary}[section] \theoremstyle{definition} \newtheorem{definition}{Definition}[section] \newtheorem{example}{Example}[section] %\theoremstyle{remark} \newtheorem{remark}{Remark}[section] \newtheorem*{notation}{Notation} \newtheorem*{claim}{Claim} \renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\ensuremath{\fnsymbol{footnote%%@ }}} \numberwithin{equation}{section} \newcommand{\Ad}{{\rm Ad}} \newcommand{\Aut}{{\rm Aut}} \newcommand{\Cl}{{\rm Cl}} \newcommand{\Co}{{\rm Co}} \newcommand{\DES}{{\rm DES}} \newcommand{\Diff}{{\rm Diff}} \newcommand{\Dom}{{\rm Dom}} \newcommand{\Hol}{{\rm Hol}} \newcommand{\Mon}{{\rm Mon}} \newcommand{\Hom}{{\rm Hom}} \newcommand{\Ker}{{\rm Ker}} \newcommand{\Ind}{{\rm Ind}} \newcommand{\IM}{{\rm Im}} \newcommand{\Is}{{\rm Is}} \newcommand{\ID}{{\rm id}} \newcommand{\GL}{{\rm GL}} \newcommand{\Iso}{{\rm Iso}} \newcommand{\Sem}{{\rm Sem}} \newcommand{\St}{{\rm St}} \newcommand{\Sym}{{\rm Sym}} \newcommand{\SU}{{\rm SU}} \newcommand{\Tor}{{\rm Tor}} \newcommand{\U}{{\rm U}} \newcommand{\A}{\mathcal A} \newcommand{\Ce}{\mathcal C} \newcommand{\D}{\mathcal D} \newcommand{\E}{\mathcal E} \newcommand{\F}{\mathcal F} \newcommand{\G}{\mathcal G} \newcommand{\Q}{\mathcal Q} \newcommand{\R}{\mathcal R} \newcommand{\cS}{\mathcal S} \newcommand{\cU}{\mathcal U} \newcommand{\W}{\mathcal W} \newcommand{\bA}{\mathbb{A}} \newcommand{\bB}{\mathbb{B}} \newcommand{\bC}{\mathbb{C}} \newcommand{\bD}{\mathbb{D}} \newcommand{\bE}{\mathbb{E}} \newcommand{\bF}{\mathbb{F}} \newcommand{\bG}{\mathbb{G}} \newcommand{\bK}{\mathbb{K}} \newcommand{\bM}{\mathbb{M}} \newcommand{\bN}{\mathbb{N}} \newcommand{\bO}{\mathbb{O}} \newcommand{\bP}{\mathbb{P}} \newcommand{\bR}{\mathbb{R}} \newcommand{\bV}{\mathbb{V}} \newcommand{\bZ}{\mathbb{Z}} \newcommand{\bfE}{\mathbf{E}} \newcommand{\bfX}{\mathbf{X}} \newcommand{\bfY}{\mathbf{Y}} \newcommand{\bfZ}{\mathbf{Z}} \renewcommand{\O}{\Omega} \renewcommand{\o}{\omega} \newcommand{\vp}{\varphi} \newcommand{\vep}{\varepsilon} \newcommand{\diag}{{\rm diag}} \newcommand{\grp}{{\mathbb G}} \newcommand{\dgrp}{{\mathbb D}} \newcommand{\desp}{{\mathbb D^{\rm{es}}}} \newcommand{\Geod}{{\rm Geod}} \newcommand{\geod}{{\rm geod}} \newcommand{\hgr}{{\mathbb H}} \newcommand{\mgr}{{\mathbb M}} \newcommand{\ob}{{\rm Ob}} \newcommand{\obg}{{\rm Ob(\mathbb G)}} \newcommand{\obgp}{{\rm Ob(\mathbb G')}} \newcommand{\obh}{{\rm Ob(\mathbb H)}} \newcommand{\Osmooth}{{\Omega^{\infty}(X,*)}} \newcommand{\ghomotop}{{\rho_2^{\square}}} \newcommand{\gcalp}{{\mathbb G(\mathcal P)}} \newcommand{\rf}{{R_{\mathcal F}}} \newcommand{\glob}{{\rm glob}} \newcommand{\loc}{{\rm loc}} \newcommand{\TOP}{{\rm TOP}} \newcommand{\wti}{\widetilde} \newcommand{\what}{\widehat} \renewcommand{\a}{\alpha} \newcommand{\be}{\beta} \newcommand{\ga}{\gamma} \newcommand{\Ga}{\Gamma} \newcommand{\de}{\delta} \newcommand{\del}{\partial} \newcommand{\ka}{\kappa} \newcommand{\si}{\sigma} \newcommand{\ta}{\tau} \newcommand{\med}{\medbreak} \newcommand{\medn}{\medbreak \noindent} \newcommand{\bign}{\bigbreak \noindent} \newcommand{\lra}{{\longrightarrow}} \newcommand{\ra}{{\rightarrow}} \newcommand{\rat}{{\rightarrowtail}} \newcommand{\oset}[1]{\overset {#1}{\ra}} \newcommand{\osetl}[1]{\overset {#1}{\lra}} \newcommand{\hr}{{\hookrightarrow}} \textbf{IHES Organization: The `Fusion' of Theoretical Physics with Mathematics} \textbf{S. Majid: On the Relationship between Mathematics and Physics:} In ref. \cite{SM91}, S. Majid presents the following `thesis' : ``(roughly speaking) physics polarises down the middle into two parts, one which represents the other, but that the latter equally represents the former, i.e. the two should be treated on an equal footing. The starting point is that Nature after all does not know or care what mathematics is already in textbooks. Therefore the quest for the ultimate theory may well entail, probably does entail, inventing entirely new mathematics in the process. In other words, at least at some intuitive level, {\em a theoretical physicist also has to be a pure mathematician}. Then one can phrase the question `what is the ultimate theory of physics ?' in the form `in the tableau of all mathematical concepts past present and future, is there some constrained surface or subset which is called physics ?' Is there an equation for physics itself as a subset of mathematics? I believe there is and if it were to be found it would be called the ultimate theory of physics. Moreover, I believe that it can be found and that it has a lot to do with what is different about the way a physicist looks at the world compared to a mathematician...We can then try to elevate the idea to a more general principle of representation-theoretic self-duality, that a fundamental theory of physics is incomplete unless such a role-reversal is possible. We can go further and hope to fully determine the (supposed) structure of fundamental laws of nature among all mathematical structures by this self-duality condition. Such duality considerations are certainly evident in some form in the context of quantum theory and gravity. The situation is summarised to the left in the following diagram. For example, Lie groups provide the simplest examples of Riemannian geometry, while the representations of similar Lie groups provide the quantum numbers of elementary particles in quantum theory. Thus, both quantum theory and non-Euclidean geometry are needed for a self-dual picture. Hopf algebras (quantum groups) precisely serve to unify these mutually dual structures.'' (The reader may also wish to see the original document \PMlinkexternal{on line}{http://www.maths.qmul.ac.uk/~majid/pessay.html}.) ** \PMlinkexternal{Maxim Kontsevich receives the Crafoord Prize in 2008}{http://www.ihes.fr/jsp/site/Portal.jsp?page_id=251#}: ``Maxim Kontsevich, Daniel Iagolnitzer Prize, Prix Henri Poincar\'e Prize in 1997, Fields Medal in 1998, member of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, is a French mathematician of Russian origin and is a permament professor at IH\'ES (since 1995). He belongs to a new generation of mathematicians who have been able to integrate in their area of work aspects of \emph{quantum theory}, opening up radically new perspectives. On the mathematical side, he drew on the systematic use of known algebraic structure deformations and on the introduction of new ones, such as the `triangulated categories' that turned out to be relevant in many other areas, with no obvious link, such as image processing.', 'The Crafoord Prize in astronomy and mathematics, biosciences, geosciences or polyarthritis research is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences annually according to a rotating scheme. The prize sum of USD 500,000 makes the Crafoord one of the world´s largest scientific prizes'.'' ``Mathematics and astrophysics were in the limelight this year, with the joint award of the Mathematics Prize to Maxim Kontsevitch, (French \textbf{(mathematician)}), and Edward Witten, (US \textbf{(theoretical physicist)}), `for their important contributions to mathematics inspired by modern theoretical physics', and the award of the Astronomy Prize to Rashid Alievich Sunyaev (astrophysicist) `for his decisive contributions to high-energy astrophysics and cosmology','' **Source : Crafoord Prize official website. \textbf{Pierre Cartier : On the Fusion of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at IHES} A verbatim quote from : \emph{The Evolution of Concepts of Space and Symmetry-- A Mad Day's Work: From Grothendieck to Connes and Kontsevich*:''} \begin{thebibliography}{9} \bibitem{AMS2k1} \emph{* Bulletin (New Series) of the American Mathematical Society}, Volume 38, Number 4, Pages 389--408., S 0273-0979(01)00913-2, Article electronically published on July 12, 2001. \bibitem{SM91} S. Majid, Principle of representation-theoretic self-duality, \emph{Phys. Essays}. 4 (1991) 395-405. \end{thebibliography}