Edward Witten

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Edward Witten
Witten in 2008
Born (1951-08-26) August 26, 1951 (age 72)
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Education
Known for
CSW rules
Witten conjecture
Witten zeta function
Hanany–Witten transition
Twistor string theory
Chern–Simons theory
Positive energy theorem

 Witten–Veneziano mechanism
Spouse
Oxford University
California Institute of Technology
Princeton University
ThesisSome Problems in the Short Distance Analysis of Gauge Theories (1976)
Doctoral advisorDavid Gross[2]
Other academic advisorsSidney Coleman[3]
Michael Atiyah[3]
Doctoral studentsJonathan Bagger (1983)
Cumrun Vafa (1985)
Xiao-Gang Wen (1987)
Dror Bar-Natan (1991)
Shamit Kachru (1994)
Eva Silverstein (1996)
Sergei Gukov (2001)
Websiteias.edu/sns/witten

Edward Witten (born August 26, 1951) is an American

Feynman integrals.[6] He is considered the practical founder of M-theory.[7]

Early life and education

Witten was born on August 26, 1951, in

theoretical physicist specializing in gravitation and general relativity.[13]

Witten attended the Park School of Baltimore (class of 1968), and received his Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in history and minor in linguistics from Brandeis University in 1971.[14]

He had aspirations in journalism and politics and published articles in both The New Republic and The Nation in the late 1960s.[15][16] In 1972, he worked for six months on George McGovern's presidential campaign.[17]

Witten attended the

Oxford University (1977–78),[3][20] was a junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows (1977–1980), and held a MacArthur Foundation fellowship (1982).[4]

Research

Fields medal work

Witten was awarded the Fields Medal by the International Mathematical Union in 1990.[21]

In a written address to the ICM, Michael Atiyah said of Witten:[5]

Although he is definitely a physicist (as his list of publications clearly shows) his command of mathematics is rivaled by few mathematicians, and his ability to interpret physical ideas in mathematical form is quite unique. Time and again he has surprised the mathematical community by a brilliant application of physical insight leading to new and deep mathematical theorems ... He has made a profound impact on contemporary mathematics. In his hands physics is once again providing a rich source of inspiration and insight in mathematics.[5]

Edward Witten (left) with mathematician Shigefumi Mori, probably at the ICM in 1990, where they received the Fields Medal

As an example of Witten's work in pure mathematics, Atiyah cites his application of techniques from

mathematically rigorous, mathematicians were able to systematically develop Witten's ideas, leading to the theory of Reshetikhin–Turaev invariants.[24]

Another result for which Witten was awarded the Fields Medal was his proof in 1981 of the

supergravity theory to simplify the argument.[28]

A third area mentioned in Atiyah's address is Witten's work relating

manifolds using the concept of a differentiable function. Witten's work gave a physical proof of a classical result, the Morse inequalities, by interpreting the theory in terms of supersymmetric quantum mechanics.[29]

M-theory

By the mid 1990s, physicists working on

SO(32) and E8×E8). The thinking was that of these five candidate theories, only one was the actual correct theory of everything, and that theory was the one whose low-energy limit matched the physics observed in our world today.[30]

Speaking at the string theory conference at

second superstring revolution.[30]

Other work

Edward Witten (center) with David Gross and Stephen Hawking at Strings 2001 at TIFR in Mumbai, India

Another of Witten's contributions to physics was to the result of gauge/gravity duality. In 1997,

quantum field theories and theories of quantum gravity.[33] Maldacena's discovery has dominated high-energy theoretical physics for the past 15 years because of its applications to theoretical problems in quantum gravity and quantum field theory. Witten's foundational work following Maldacena's result has shed light on this relationship.[34]

In collaboration with

Seiberg–Witten invariants.[37]

With Anton Kapustin, Witten has made deep mathematical connections between S-duality of gauge theories and the geometric Langlands correspondence.[38] Partly in collaboration with Seiberg, one of his recent interests includes aspects of field theoretical description of topological phases in condensed matter and non-supersymmetric dualities in field theories that, among other things, are of high relevance in condensed matter theory. In 2016, he has also brought tensor models to the relevance of holographic and quantum gravity theories, by using them as a generalization of the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev model.[39]

Witten has published influential and insightful work in many aspects of quantum field theories and mathematical physics, including the physics and mathematics of anomalies, integrability, dualities, localization, and homologies. Many of his results have deeply influenced areas in theoretical physics (often well beyond the original context of his results), including string theory, quantum gravity and topological condensed matter.[40]

Awards and honors

Witten has been honored with numerous awards including a

MacArthur Grant (1982), the Fields Medal (1990), the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (1997),[41] the Nemmers Prize in Mathematics (2000), the National Medal of Science[42] (2002), Pythagoras Award[43] (2005), the Henri Poincaré Prize (2006), the Crafoord Prize (2008), the Lorentz Medal (2010) the Isaac Newton Medal (2010) and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2012). Since 1999, he has been a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (London), and in March 2016 was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[44][45] Pope Benedict XVI appointed Witten as a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (2006). He also appeared in the list of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2004. In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.[46] Witten was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1984, a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1988, and a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1993.[47][48][49] In May 2022 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania.[50]

In an informal poll at a 1990 cosmology conference, Witten received the largest number of mentions as "the smartest living physicist".[51]

Personal life

Witten has been married to Chiara Nappi, a professor of physics at Princeton University, since 1979.[52] They have two daughters and a son. Their daughter Ilana B. Witten is a neuroscientist at Princeton University,[53] and daughter Daniela Witten is a biostatistician at the University of Washington.[54]

Witten sits on the board of directors of

J Street.[55] He supports the two-state solution and advocates a boycott of Israeli institutions and economic activity beyond its 1967 borders, though not of Israel itself.[56] Witten lived in Israel for a year in the 1960s.[57]

Selected publications

References

  1. ^ "Announcement of 2016 Winners". World Cultural Council. June 6, 2016. Archived from the original on June 7, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
  2. ISBN 0-465-09275-6
    .
  3. ^ a b c "Edward Witten – Adventures in physics and math (Kyoto Prize lecture 2014)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 23, 2016. Retrieved October 30, 2016.
  4. ^ a b "Edward Witten". Institute for Advanced Study. December 9, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c Atiyah, Michael (1990). "On the Work of Edward Witten" (PDF). Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians. pp. 31–35. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 1, 2017.
  6. ^ Michael Atiyah. "On the Work of Edward Witten" (PDF). Mathunion.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 1, 2017. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
  7. ^ Duff 1998, p. 65
  8. ^ J J O'Connor; E F Robertson (September 2009). "Edward Witten - Biography". Maths History. University of St Andrews. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  9. ^ "LDB Appoints Jesse A. Witten to the LDB Legal Advisory Board". Brandeis Center. October 20, 2020.
  10. ^ Celia Witten at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  11. ^ "Celia Witten, M.D., Ph.D." The University of Texas at Austin, College of Pharmacy.
  12. ^ "Obituary for Lorraine Witten". The Cincinnati Enquirer. February 10, 1987. p. 13.
  13. ISBN 978-0-946653-84-3
    .
  14. ^ "Edward Witten (1951)". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  15. ^ Witten, Edward (October 18, 1969). "Are You Listening, D.H. Lawrence?". The New Republic.
  16. ^ Witten, Edward (December 16, 1968). "The New Left". The Nation.
  17. ^ Farmelo, Graham (May 2, 2019). "'The Universe Speaks in Numbers' – Interview 5". Graham Farmelo. Archived from the original on May 3, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2020. Alt URL
  18. ^ "Edward Witten". www.aip.org. February 24, 2022. Retrieved June 21, 2022.
  19. ^ Witten, E. (1976). Some problems in the short distance analysis of gauge theories.
  20. ^ Interview by Hirosi Ooguri Archived March 29, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, May 2015, pp. 491–506.
  21. ^ "Edward Witten" (PDF). 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 4, 2012. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  22. ^
    S2CID 43230714
  23. S2CID 14951363
    .
  24. S2CID 123376541
    .
  25. S2CID 1035111
    .
  26. S2CID 54217085
    .
  27. S2CID 59473203
    .
  28. ISSN 0010-3616
    .
  29. ^
    doi:10.4310/jdg/1214437492
    .
  30. ^
    ISBN 978-3-662-50183-2
    .
  31. ^ Witten, E. (March 13–18, 1995). Some problems of strong and weak coupling. physics.usc.edu. Future Perspectives in String Theory. Los Angeles: University of Southern California. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  32. S2CID 16790997
    .
  33. doi:10.4310/ATMP.1998.V2.N2.A1
    .
  34. S2CID 10882387
    .
  35. S2CID 668885
    .
  36. S2CID 14361074
    .
  37. MR 1339810
  38. S2CID 30505126
    .
  39. S2CID 118412962
    .
  40. ^ Stiftung, Joachim Herz (July 3, 2023). "News". Joachim Herz Stiftung. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  41. American Academy of Achievement
    .
  42. ^ "The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details". www.nsf.gov. National Science Foundation. 2003. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  43. ^ "Il premio Pitagora al fisico teorico Witten". Il Crotonese (in Italian). September 23, 2005. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011.
  44. ^ "Current Fellows". royalsociety.org. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  45. ^ "Fellows". June 21, 2016. Archived from the original on March 9, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  46. ^ "Fellows of the American Mathematical Society". American Mathematical Society. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  47. ^ "Edward Witten". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  48. ^ "Edward Witten". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  49. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  50. ^ "Penn's 2022 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipients". Retrieved May 30, 2022.
  51. Michael Turner, James Peebles, Alan Guth and Andrei Linde, to nominate the smartest living physicist. Edward Witten got the most votes (with Steven Weinberg the runner-up). Some considered Witten to be in the same league as Einstein and Newton." See "Physics Titan Edward Witten Still Thinks String Theory 'on the Right Track'"
    . scientificamerican.com. September 22, 2014. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
  52. ^ Witten, Ed. "The 2014 Kyoto Prize Commemorative Lecture in Basic Sciences" (PDF). Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  53. ^ "Faculty » Ilana B. Witten". princeton.edu. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  54. ^ "UW Faculty » Daniela M. Witten". washington.edu. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  55. ^ "Advisory Council". J Street. 2016. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  56. ISSN 0028-7504
    . Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  57. ^ "Edward Witten for Americans for Peace Now". Americans for Peace Now. February 8, 2005. Retrieved April 5, 2024.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edward Witten.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Edward Witten.
Scholia has an author profile for Edward Witten.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_Witten&oldid=1228733326"