Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A third area mentioned in Atiyah's address is Witten's work relating supersymmetry and Morse theory, [29] a branch of mathematics that studies the topology of manifolds using the concept of a differentiable function.
Supersymmetry is a theoretical framework in physics that suggests the existence of a symmetry between particles with integer spin and particles with half-integer spin ().It proposes that for every known particle, there exists a partner particle with different spin properties. [1]
In supersymmetry, 4D = global supersymmetry is the theory of global supersymmetry in four dimensions with a single supercharge.It consists of an arbitrary number of chiral and vector supermultiplets whose possible interactions are strongly constrained by supersymmetry, with the theory primarily fixed by three functions: the Kähler potential, the superpotential, and the gauge kinetic matrix.
In theoretical physics and mathematics, a Wess–Zumino–Witten (WZW) model, also called a Wess–Zumino–Novikov–Witten model, is a type of two-dimensional conformal field theory named after Julius Wess, Bruno Zumino, Sergei Novikov and Edward Witten.
Before Morse, Arthur Cayley and James Clerk Maxwell had developed some of the ideas of Morse theory in the context of topography. Morse originally applied his theory to geodesics (critical points of the energy functional on the space of paths). These techniques were used in Raoul Bott's proof of his periodicity theorem. The analogue of Morse ...
Gauge symmetry is an example of a local symmetry, with the symmetry described by a Lie group (which mathematically describe continuous symmetries), which in the context of gauge theory is called the gauge group of the theory. Quantum chromodynamics and quantum electrodynamics are famous examples of gauge theories.
For example, the existence of the (2,0)-theory was used by Witten to give a "physical" explanation for a conjectural relationship in mathematics called the geometric Langlands correspondence. [58] In subsequent work, Witten showed that the (2,0)-theory could be used to understand a concept in mathematics called Khovanov homology. [59]
To make progress on these problems, physicists developed supersymmetric quantum mechanics, an application of the supersymmetry superalgebra to quantum mechanics as opposed to quantum field theory. It was hoped that studying SUSY's consequences in this simpler setting would lead to new understanding; remarkably, the effort created new areas of ...