Edward Witten
Edward Witten: A Pioneering Theoretical Physicist
#### Full Name and Common Aliases
Edward Witten is an American theoretical physicist and mathematician whose full name is Edward Stuart Witten.
#### Birth and Death Dates
Born on August 26, 1951, in Baltimore, Maryland. As of this writing, he remains alive.
#### Nationality and Profession(s)
Witten holds dual citizenship of the United States and Poland, and his professions include:
Theoretical physicist
Mathematician
#### Early Life and Background
Edward Witten was born to a Jewish family. His father, Louis Witten, was a nuclear physicist who worked at the Johns Hopkins University. Growing up in Baltimore, Edward developed an interest in mathematics and science at an early age.
Witten's academic journey began at Brandeis University, where he studied physics and mathematics. He later earned his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in 1976 under the supervision of David Ruelle.
#### Major Accomplishments
Edward Witten is renowned for several groundbreaking contributions to theoretical physics and mathematics:
Superstring theory: Witten's work on superstring theory, particularly M-theory, has revolutionized our understanding of the universe. He proposed that the fundamental building blocks of nature are not particles but tiny, vibrating strings.
Supersymmetry: Witten made significant contributions to supersymmetry (SUSY), which posits that every particle has a supersymmetric partner with different spin properties.
AdS/CFT correspondence: He was instrumental in developing the AdS/CFT correspondence, also known as the Maldacena duality, which relates string theory to quantum field theories.
#### Notable Works or Actions
Some of Witten's notable works include:
"Topological Quantum Field Theory" (1991) - a seminal paper introducing topological quantum field theory and its application in understanding the behavior of particles at high energies.
"Fivebranes, Membranes, and Phase Transitions" (2000) - an influential work on M-theory and its relation to gauge theories.
#### Impact and Legacy
Edward Witten's contributions have far-reaching implications for our understanding of the universe:
Unification of fundamental forces: His work on superstring theory and M-theory has led to a deeper understanding of how the fundamental forces, including gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces, are unified.
* Advancements in mathematics: Witten's research has also made significant contributions to mathematical fields such as topology, geometry, and algebraic geometry.
#### Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
Edward Witten is widely quoted and remembered for his groundbreaking work in theoretical physics and mathematics. His ideas have transformed our understanding of the universe, and he continues to be a leading figure in the field.
As a renowned expert, his opinions on various topics related to physics and mathematics carry significant weight.
Quotes by Edward Witten
Quantum mechanics brought an unexpected fuzziness into physics because of quantum uncertainty, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
I just think too many nice things have happened in string theory for it to be all wrong. Humans do not understand it very well, but I just don't believe there is a big cosmic conspiracy that created this incredible thing that has nothing to do with the real world.
We have one real candidate for changing the rules; this is string theory. In string theory the one-dimensional trajectory of a particle in spacetime is replaced by a two-dimensional orbit of a string. Such strings can be of any size, but under ordinary circumstances they are quite tiny,... a value determined by comparing the predictions of the theory for Newton’s constant and the fine structure constant to experimental values.
Most people who haven’t been trained in physics probably think of what physicists do as a question of incredibly complicated calculations, but that’s not really the essence of it. The essence of it is that physics is about concepts, wanting to understand the concepts, the principles by which the world works.
As far as extra dimensions are concerned, very tiny extra dimensions wouldn’t be perceived in everyday life, just as atoms aren’t: we see many atoms together but we don’t see atoms individually.
It’s indeed surprising that replacing the elementary particle with a string leads to such a big change in things. I’m tempted to say that it has to do with the fuzziness it introduces.
The theory has to be interpreted that extra dimensions beyond the ordinary four dimensions the three spatial dimensions plus time are sufficiently small that they haven’t been observed yet.
I wouldn’t have thought that a wrong theory should lead us to understand better the ordinary quantum field theories or to have new insights about the quantum states of black holes.
There was a long history of speculation that in quantum gravity, unlike Einstein’s classical theory, it might be possible for the topology of spacetime to change.