Wikipedia

Edward Witten

Edward Witten(born August 26, 1951) is an Americantheoretical physicistknown for his contributions tostring theory,topological quantum field theory,and various areas ofmathematics.He is a professor emeritus in the school ofnatural sciencesat theInstitute for Advanced StudyinPrinceton.[4]Witten is a researcher instring theory,quantum gravity,supersymmetric quantum field theories,and other areas of mathematical physics. Witten's work has also significantly impacted pure mathematics.[5]In 1990, he became the first physicist to be awarded aFields Medalby theInternational Mathematical Union,for his mathematical insights in physics, such as his 1981 proof of thepositive energy theoremingeneral relativity,and his interpretation of theJonesinvariants of knots asFeynman integrals.[6]He is considered the practical founder ofM-theory.[7]

Edward Witten
Witten in 2008
Born(1951-08-26)August 26, 1951(age 73)
Baltimore,Maryland,U.S.
Education
Known forM-theory
Seiberg–Witten theory
Seiberg–Witten map
Seiberg–Witten invariants
Wess–Zumino–Witten model
Weinberg–Witten theorem
Gromov–Witten invariant
Hořava–Witten domain wall
Vafa–Witten theorem
Witten index
BCFW recursion
Topological quantum field theory(Witten-type TQFTs)
Topological string theory
CSW rules
Witten conjecture
Witten zeta function
Hanany–Witten transition
Twistor string theory
Chern–Simons theory
Positive energy theorem
Witten–Veneziano mechanism
SpouseChiara Nappi
Children3
AwardsMacArthur Fellowship(1982)
Albert Einstein Medal(1985)
ICTP Dirac Medal(1985)
Alan T. Waterman Award(1986)
Fields Medal(1990)
Dannie Heineman Prize(1998)
Nemmers Prize(2000)
National Medal of Science(2002)
Harvey Prize(2005)
Henri Poincaré Prize(2006)
Crafoord Prize(2008)
Lorentz Medal(2010)
Isaac Newton Medal(2010)
Breakthrough Prize in
Fundamental Physics(2012)
Kyoto Prize(2014)
Albert Einstein Award(2016)[1]
Scientific career
FieldsTheoretical physics
Mathematical physics
Superstring theory
InstitutionsInstitute for Advanced Study
Harvard University
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

Early life and education

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Witten was born on August 26, 1951, inBaltimore,Maryland,to aJewishfamily,[8]as the eldest of four children. His brotherMatt Wittenbecame a writer, and his brother Jesse Amnon Witten became a law partner in the firmFaegre Drinker Biddle & Reath.[9]The three brothers' sister Celia M. Witten earned a Ph.D. in mathematics fromStanford University[10]and then an M.D. from theUniversity of Miami.[11]Edward Witten is the son of Lorraine (born Wollach) Witten[12]andLouis Witten,atheoretical physicistspecializing ingravitationandgeneral relativity.[13]

Witten attended thePark School of Baltimore(class of 1968), and received hisBachelor of Artsdegree with a major inhistoryand minor inlinguisticsfromBrandeis Universityin 1971.[14]

He had aspirations in journalism and politics and published articles in bothThe New RepublicandThe Nationin the late 1960s.[15][16]In 1972, he worked for six months onGeorge McGovern's presidential campaign.[17]

Witten attended theUniversity of Michiganfor one semester as an economics graduate student before dropping out.[18]He returned to academia, enrolling inapplied mathematicsatPrinceton Universityin 1973, then shifting departments and receiving aPhDin physics in 1976 and completing a dissertation, "Some problems in the short distance analysis of gauge theories", under the supervision ofDavid Gross.[19]He held a fellowship atHarvard University(1976–77), visitedOxford University(1977–78),[3][20]was a junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows (1977–1980), and held aMacArthur Foundationfellowship (1982).[4]

Research

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Fields medal work

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Witten was awarded theFields Medalby theInternational Mathematical Unionin 1990.[21]

In a written address to theICM,Michael Atiyahsaid 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 mathematicianShigefumi Mori,probably at theICMin 1990, where they received theFields Medal

As an example of Witten's work in pure mathematics, Atiyah cites his application of techniques fromquantum field theoryto the mathematical subject oflow-dimensional topology.In the late 1980s, Witten coined the termtopological quantum field theoryfor a certain type of physical theory in which theexpectation valuesof observable quantities encode information about thetopologyofspacetime.[22]In particular, Witten realized that a physical theory now calledChern–Simons theorycould provide a framework for understanding the mathematical theory ofknotsand3-manifolds.[23]Although Witten's work was based on the mathematically ill-defined notion of aFeynman path integraland therefore notmathematically rigorous,mathematicians were able to systematically develop Witten's ideas, leading to the theory ofReshetikhin–Turaev invariants.[24]

Another result for which Witten was awarded the Fields Medal was his proof in 1981 of thepositive energy theoremingeneral relativity.[25]This theorem asserts that (under appropriate assumptions) the totalenergyof a gravitating system is always positive and can be zero only if the geometry ofspacetimeis that of flatMinkowski space.It establishes Minkowski space as a stable ground state of thegravitational field.While the original proof of this result due toRichard SchoenandShing-Tung Yauusedvariational methods,[26][27]Witten's proof used ideas fromsupergravity theoryto simplify the argument.[28]

A third area mentioned in Atiyah's address is Witten's work relatingsupersymmetryandMorse theory,[29]a branch of mathematics that studies thetopologyofmanifoldsusing the concept of adifferentiable function.Witten's work gave a physical proof of a classical result, theMorse inequalities,by interpreting the theory in terms ofsupersymmetric quantum mechanics.[29]

M-theory

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By the mid 1990s, physicists working onstring theoryhad developed five different consistent versions of the theory. These versions are known astype I,type IIA,type IIB,and the two flavors ofheterotic stringtheory (SO(32)andE8×E8). The thinking was that of these five candidate theories, only one was the actual correcttheory of everything,and that theory was the one whose low-energy limit matched the physics observed in our world today.[30]

Speaking atStrings'95 conference atUniversity of Southern California,Witten made the surprising suggestion that these five string theories were in fact not distinct theories, but different limits of a single theory, which he calledM-theory.[31][32]Witten's proposal was based on the observation that the five string theories can be mapped to one another by certain rules calleddualitiesand are identified by these dualities. It led to a flurry of work now known as thesecond superstring revolution.[30]

Other work

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Edward Witten (center) withDavid GrossandStephen HawkingatStrings 2001at TIFR in Mumbai, India

Another of Witten's contributions to physics was to the result of gauge/gravity duality. In 1997,Juan Maldacenaformulated a result known as theAdS/CFT correspondence,which establishes a relationship between certainquantum field theoriesand theories ofquantum 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 withNathan Seiberg,Witten established several powerful results in quantum field theories. In their paper on string theory andnoncommutative geometry,Seiberg and Witten studied certainnoncommutative quantum field theoriesthat arise as limits of string theory.[35]In another well-known paper, they studied aspects ofsupersymmetric gauge theory.[36]The latter paper, combined with Witten's earlier work on topological quantum field theory,[22]led to developments in the topology ofsmooth4-manifolds,in particular the notion ofSeiberg–Witten invariants.[37]

WithAnton Kapustin,Witten has made deep mathematical connections between S-duality of gauge theories and thegeometric 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 theSachdev–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]In particular, Witten is known for collaborating withRuth Brittoon a method calculating scattering amplitudes known as theBCFW recursion relations.

Awards and honors

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Witten has been honored with numerous awards including aMacArthur Grant(1982), theFields Medal(1990), the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement(1997),[41]theNemmers Prize in Mathematics(2000), theNational Medal of Science[42](2002), Pythagoras Award[43](2005), theHenri Poincaré Prize(2006), theCrafoord Prize(2008), theLorentz Medal(2010) theIsaac Newton Medal(2010) and theBreakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics(2012). Since 1999, he has been a Foreign Member of theRoyal Society(London), and in March 2016 was elected an Honorary Fellow of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh.[44][45]Pope Benedict XVIappointed Witten as a member of thePontifical Academy of Sciences(2006). He also appeared in the list ofTimemagazine's100 most influential peopleof 2004. In 2012, he became a fellow of theAmerican Mathematical Society.[46]Witten was elected as a member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciencesin 1984, a member of theNational Academy of Sciencesin 1988, and a member of theAmerican Philosophical Societyin 1993.[47][48][49]In May 2022 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Sciences from theUniversity 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

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Witten has been married toChiara Nappi,a professor of physics atPrinceton University,since 1979.[52]They have two daughters and a son. Their daughterIlana B. Wittenis a neuroscientist at Princeton University,[53]and daughterDaniela Wittenis a biostatistician at theUniversity of Washington.[54]

Witten sits on the board of directors ofAmericans for Peace Nowand on the advisory council ofJ Street.[55]He supports thetwo-state solutionand 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

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  • Some Problems in the Short Distance Analysis of Gauge Theories.Princeton University,1976. (Dissertation.)
  • Roman Jackiw,David Gross,Sam B. Treiman,Edward Witten,Bruno Zumino.Current Algebra and Anomalies: A Set of Lecture Notes and Papers.World Scientific, 1985.
  • Green, M.,John H. Schwarz,and E. Witten.Superstring Theory. Vol. 1, Introduction.Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988.ISBN978-0-521-35752-4.
  • Green, M., John H. Schwarz, and E. Witten.Superstring Theory. Vol. 2, Loop Amplitudes, Anomalies and Phenomenology.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988.ISBN978-0-521-35753-1.
  • Quantum fields and strings: a course for mathematicians.Vols. 1, 2. Material from the Special Year on Quantum Field Theory held at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, 1996–1997. Edited byPierre Deligne,Pavel Etingof,Daniel S. Freed,Lisa C. Jeffrey,David Kazhdan,John W. Morgan,David R. Morrisonand Edward Witten. American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI; Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton, NJ, 1999. Vol. 1: xxii+723 pp.; Vol. 2: pp. i–xxiv and 727–1501.ISBN0-8218-1198-3,81–06 (81T30 81Txx).

References

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  1. ^"Announcement of 2016 Winners".World Cultural Council. June 6, 2016. Archived fromthe originalon June 7, 2016.RetrievedJune 6,2016.
  2. ^Woit, Peter (2006).Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law.New York: Basic Books. p.105.ISBN0-465-09275-6.
  3. ^abc"Edward Witten – Adventures in physics and math (Kyoto Prize lecture 2014)"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on August 23, 2016.RetrievedOctober 30,2016.
  4. ^ab"Edward Witten".Institute for Advanced Study.December 9, 2019.RetrievedJuly 14,2022.
  5. ^abcAtiyah, Michael (1990)."On the Work of Edward Witten"(PDF).Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians.pp.31–35. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on March 1, 2017.
  6. ^Michael Atiyah."On the Work of Edward Witten"(PDF).Mathunion.org.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on March 1, 2017.RetrievedMarch 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.RetrievedFebruary 1,2023.
  9. ^"LDB Appoints Jesse A. Witten to the LDB Legal Advisory Board".Brandeis Center.October 20, 2020.
  10. ^Celia Wittenat theMathematics 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. ^The International Who's Who: 1992–93.Europa Publications. 1992. p. 1754.ISBN978-0-946653-84-3.
  14. ^"Edward Witten (1951)".www.nsf.gov.RetrievedAugust 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.Archivedfrom the original on May 3, 2019.RetrievedAugust 25,2020.Alt URL
  18. ^"Edward Witten".www.aip.org.February 24, 2022.RetrievedJune 21,2022.
  19. ^Witten, E. (1976).Some problems in the short distance analysis of gauge theories.
  20. ^Interview by Hirosi OoguriArchivedMarch 29, 2017, at theWayback Machine,Notices of the American Mathematical Society,May 2015, pp. 491–506.
  21. ^"Edward Witten"(PDF).2011. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on February 4, 2012.RetrievedApril 13,2021.
  22. ^abWitten, Edward (1988),"Topological quantum field theory",Communications in Mathematical Physics,117(3):353–386,Bibcode:1988CMaPh.117..353W,doi:10.1007/BF01223371,S2CID43230714
  23. ^Witten, Edward (1989)."Quantum Field Theory and the Jones Polynomial"(PDF).Communications in Mathematical Physics.121(3):351–399.Bibcode:1989CMaPh.121..351W.doi:10.1007/BF01217730.S2CID14951363.
  24. ^Reshetikhin, Nicolai; Turaev, Vladimir (1991). "Invariants of 3-manifolds via link polynomials and quantum groups".Inventiones Mathematicae.103(1):547–597.Bibcode:1991InMat.103..547R.doi:10.1007/BF01239527.S2CID123376541.
  25. ^Witten, Edward (1981)."A new proof of the positive energy theorem".Communications in Mathematical Physics.80(3):381–402.Bibcode:1981CMaPh..80..381W.doi:10.1007/BF01208277.S2CID1035111.
  26. ^Schoen, Robert; Yau, Shing-Tung (1979)."On the proof of the positive mass conjecture in general relativity".Communications in Mathematical Physics.65(1): 45.Bibcode:1979CMaPh..65...45S.doi:10.1007/BF01940959.S2CID54217085.
  27. ^Schoen, Robert; Yau, Shing-Tung (1981)."Proof of the positive mass theorem. II".Communications in Mathematical Physics.79(2): 231.Bibcode:1981CMaPh..79..231S.doi:10.1007/BF01942062.S2CID59473203.
  28. ^Parker, Thomas H. (1985). "Gauge choice in Witten's energy expression".Communications in Mathematical Physics.100(4):471–480.Bibcode:1985CMaPh.100..471P.doi:10.1007/BF01217725.ISSN0010-3616.
  29. ^abWitten, Edward (1982)."Super-symmetry and Morse Theory".Journal of Differential Geometry.17(4):661–692.doi:10.4310/jdg/1214437492.
  30. ^abRickles, Dean (August 23, 2016).A Brief History of String Theory.Springer.ISBN978-3-662-50183-2.
  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.RetrievedFebruary 1,2023.
  32. ^Witten, Edward (1995). "String theory dynamics in various dimensions".Nuclear Physics B.443(1):85–126.arXiv:hep-th/9503124.Bibcode:1995NuPhB.443...85W.doi:10.1016/0550-3213(95)00158-O.S2CID16790997.
  33. ^Juan M. Maldacena (1998). "The Large N limit of superconformal field theories and supergravity".Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics.2(2):231–252.arXiv:hep-th/9711200.Bibcode:1998AdTMP...2..231M.doi:10.4310/ATMP.1998.V2.N2.A1.
  34. ^Edward Witten (1998). "Anti-de Sitter space and holography".Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics.2(2):253–291.arXiv:hep-th/9802150.Bibcode:1998AdTMP...2..253W.doi:10.4310/ATMP.1998.v2.n2.a2.S2CID10882387.
  35. ^Seiberg, Nathan; Witten, Edward (1999). "String Theory and Noncommutative Geometry".Journal of High Energy Physics.1999(9): 032.arXiv:hep-th/9908142.Bibcode:1999JHEP...09..032S.doi:10.1088/1126-6708/1999/09/032.S2CID668885.
  36. ^Seiberg, Nathan; Witten, Edward (1994). "Electric-magnetic duality, monopole condensation, and confinement in N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory".Nuclear Physics B.426(1):19–52.arXiv:hep-th/9407087.Bibcode:1994NuPhB.426...19S.doi:10.1016/0550-3213(94)90124-4.S2CID14361074.
  37. ^Donaldson, Simon K.(1996), "The Seiberg-Witten equations and 4-manifold topology.",Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society,(N.S.),33(1):45–70,doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-96-00625-8,MR1339810
  38. ^Kapustin, Anton; Witten, Edward (April 21, 2006). "Electric-Magnetic Duality And The Geometric Langlands Program".Communications in Number Theory and Physics.1:1–236.arXiv:hep-th/0604151.Bibcode:2007CNTP....1....1K.doi:10.4310/CNTP.2007.v1.n1.a1.S2CID30505126.
  39. ^Witten, Edward (October 31, 2016). "An SYK-Like Model Without Disorder".Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical.52(47): 474002.arXiv:1610.09758.doi:10.1088/1751-8121/ab3752.S2CID118412962.
  40. ^Stiftung, Joachim Herz (July 3, 2023)."News".Joachim Herz Stiftung.RetrievedFebruary 25,2024.
  41. ^"Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement".www.achievement.org.American Academy of Achievement.
  42. ^"The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details".www.nsf.gov.National Science Foundation. 2003.RetrievedFebruary 1,2023.
  43. ^"Il premio Pitagora al fisico teorico Witten".Il Crotonese(in Italian). September 23, 2005. Archived fromthe originalon July 22, 2011.
  44. ^"Current Fellows".royalsociety.org.RetrievedFebruary 1,2023.
  45. ^"Fellows".June 21, 2016. Archived fromthe originalon March 9, 2016.RetrievedMarch 8,2016.
  46. ^"Fellows of the American Mathematical Society".American Mathematical Society.RetrievedFebruary 1,2023.
  47. ^"Edward Witten".American Academy of Arts & Sciences.RetrievedMay 13,2020.
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  49. ^"APS Member History".search.amphilsoc.org.RetrievedMarch 21,2022.
  50. ^"Penn's 2022 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipients".RetrievedMay 30,2022.
  51. ^Lemonick, Michael(April 26, 2004)."Edward Witten".Time.Archived fromthe originalon September 1, 2006.RetrievedNovember 1,2011.
    "At a 1990 conference on cosmology," wroteJohn Horganin 2014, "I asked attendees, who included folks likeStephen Hawking,Michael Turner,James Peebles,Alan GuthandAndrei Linde,to nominate the smartest living physicist. Edward Witten got the most votes (withSteven Weinbergthe 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.RetrievedOctober 14,2014.
  52. ^Witten, Ed."The 2014 Kyoto Prize Commemorative Lecture in Basic Sciences"(PDF).RetrievedJanuary 28,2017.
  53. ^"Faculty » Ilana B. Witten".princeton.edu.RetrievedNovember 18,2016.
  54. ^"UW Faculty » Daniela M. Witten".washington.edu.RetrievedJuly 9,2015.
  55. ^"Advisory Council".J Street. 2016.RetrievedOctober 14,2016.
  56. ^Bird, Kai; Abraham, David; Witten, Edward; Walzer, Michael; Brooks, Peter; Beinart, Peter; Gitlin, Todd."For an Economic Boycott and Political Nonrecognition of the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Territories | Todd Gitlin".ISSN0028-7504.RetrievedFebruary 1,2023.
  57. ^"Edward Witten for Americans for Peace Now".Americans for Peace Now.February 8, 2005.RetrievedApril 5,2024.
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