Written by a scholar recognized for important and diverse contributions to mathematical physics, geometry and number theory, this book is a erudite and brilliantly original exploration of parallel developments in (mostly modern) art, mathematics, and physics through the study of topics such as the still-life genre, physical and artistic visions of nothingness, the mathematical concept of space, the geometry of prime numbers, particle physics and cosmology, and artistic and mathematical encounters with randomness. A final chapter shows how the language of art, especially surrealist and dadaist art, can help raise awareness and stimulate debate around some darker aspects of the mathematical profession and some of the psychological difficulties associated to the work of mathematical research. While the intended audience does not necessarily consist of readers with a scientific background, the book will be organized in such a way that it can be read at two different levels, with some chapters that require no prior knowledge of mathematics, and some others that explore more advanced material. All key mathematical notions will be introduced and explained.
Exploring common themes in modern art, mathematics, and science, including the concept of space, the notion of randomness, and the shape of the cosmos. This is a book about art—and a book about mathematics and physics. In Lumen Naturae (the title refers to a purely immanent, non-supernatural form of enlightenment), mathematical physicist Matilde Marcolli explores common themes in modern art and modern science—the concept of space, the notion of randomness, the shape of the cosmos, and other puzzles of the universe—while mapping convergences with the work of such artists as Paul Cezanne, Mark Rothko, Sol LeWitt, and Lee Krasner. Her account, focusing on questions she has investigated in her own scientific work, is illustrated by more than two hundred color images of artworks by modern and contemporary artists. Thus Marcolli finds in still life paintings broad and deep philosophical reflections on space and time, and connects notions of space in mathematics to works by Paul Klee, Salvador Dalí, and others. She considers the relation of entropy and art and how notions of entropy have been expressed by such artists as Hans Arp and Fernand Léger; and traces the evolution of randomness as a mode of artistic expression. She analyzes the relation between graphical illustration and scientific text, and offers her own watercolor-decorated mathematical notebooks. Throughout, she balances discussions of science with explorations of art, using one to inform the other. (She employs some formal notation, which can easily be skipped by general readers.) Marcolli is not simply explaining art to scientists and science to artists; she charts unexpected interdependencies that illuminate the universe.
The first instances of deformation theory were given by Kodaira and Spencer for complex structures and by Gerstenhaber for associative algebras. Since then, deformation theory has been applied as a useful tool in the study of many other mathematical structures, and even today it plays an important role in many developments of modern mathematics. This volume collects a few self-contained and peer-reviewed papers by experts which present up-to-date research topics in algebraic and motivic topology, quantum field theory, algebraic geometry, noncommutative geometry and the deformation theory of Poisson algebras. They originate from activities at the Max-Planck-Institute for Mathematics and the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics in Bonn.
This book is aimed at presenting different methods and perspectives in the theory of Quantum Groups, bridging between the algebraic, representation theoretic, analytic, and differential-geometric approaches. It also covers recent developments in Noncommutative Geometry, which have close relations to quantization and quantum group symmetries. The volume collects surveys by experts which originate from an acitvity at the Max-Planck-Institute for Mathematics in Bonn.
This book presents recent and ongoing research work aimed at understanding the mysterious relation between the computations of Feynman integrals in perturbative quantum field theory and the theory of motives of algebraic varieties and their periods. One of the main questions in the field is understanding when the residues of Feynman integrals in perturbative quantum field theory evaluate to periods of mixed Tate motives. The question originates from the occurrence of multiple zeta values in Feynman integrals calculations observed by Broadhurst and Kreimer. Two different approaches to the subject are described. The first, a OC bottom-upOCO approach, constructs explicit algebraic varieties and periods from Feynman graphs and parametric Feynman integrals. This approach, which grew out of work of BlochOCoEsnaultOCoKreimer and was more recently developed in joint work of Paolo Aluffi and the author, leads to algebro-geometric and motivic versions of the Feynman rules of quantum field theory and concentrates on explicit constructions of motives and classes in the Grothendieck ring of varieties associated to Feynman integrals. While the varieties obtained in this way can be arbitrarily complicated as motives, the part of the cohomology that is involved in the Feynman integral computation might still be of the special mixed Tate kind. A second, OC top-downOCO approach to the problem, developed in the work of Alain Connes and the author, consists of comparing a Tannakian category constructed out of the data of renormalization of perturbative scalar field theories, obtained in the form of a RiemannOCoHilbert correspondence, with Tannakian categories of mixed Tate motives. The book draws connections between these two approaches and gives an overview of other ongoing directions of research in the field, outlining the many connections of perturbative quantum field theory and renormalization to motives, singularity theory, Hodge structures, arithmetic geometry, supermanifolds, algebraic and non-commutative geometry. The text is aimed at researchers in mathematical physics, high energy physics, number theory and algebraic geometry. Partly based on lecture notes for a graduate course given by the author at Caltech in the fall of 2008, it can also be used by graduate students interested in working in this area. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Perturbative quantum field theory and Feynman diagrams (350 KB). Contents: Perturbative Quantum Field Theory and Feynman Diagrams; Motives and Periods; Feynman Integrals and Algebraic Varieties; Feynman Integrals and GelfandOCoLeray Forms; ConnesOCoKreimer Theory in a Nutshell; The RiemannOCoHilbert Correspondence; The Geometry of DimReg; Renormalization, Singularities, and Hodge Structures; Beyond Scalar Theories. Readership: Graduate students and researchers in mathematical physics and theoretical physics.
Modified gravity models play an important role in contemporary theoretical cosmology. The present book proposes a novel approach to the topic based on techniques from noncommutative geometry, especially the spectral action functional as a gravity model. The book discusses applications to early universe models and slow-roll inflation models, to the problem of cosmic topology, to non-isotropic cosmologies like mixmaster universes and Bianchi IX gravitational instantons, and to multifractal structures in cosmology.Relations between noncommutative and algebro-geometric methods in cosmology is also discussed, including the occurrence of motives, periods, and modular forms in spectral models of gravity.
Mini-Workshop on Renormalization, December 15-16, 2006, Max Planck Institut Für Mathematik, Bonn, Germany : Conference on Combinatorics and Physics, March 19-23, 2007, Max Planck Institut Für Mathematik, Bonn, Germany
Mini-Workshop on Renormalization, December 15-16, 2006, Max Planck Institut Für Mathematik, Bonn, Germany : Conference on Combinatorics and Physics, March 19-23, 2007, Max Planck Institut Für Mathematik, Bonn, Germany
This book is based on the mini-workshop Renormalization, held in December 2006, and the conference Combinatorics and Physics, held in March 2007. Both meetings took place at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Mathematik in Bonn, Germany. Research papers in the volume provide an overview of applications of combinatorics to various problems, such as applications to Hopf algebras, techniques to renormalization problems in quantum field theory, as well as combinatorial problems appearing in the context of the numerical integration of dynamical systems, in noncommutative geometry and in quantum gravity. In addition, it contains several introductory notes on renormalization Hopf algebras, Wilsonian renormalization and motives.
Modified gravity models play an important role in contemporary theoretical cosmology. The present book proposes a novel approach to the topic based on techniques from noncommutative geometry, especially the spectral action functional as a gravity model. The book discusses applications to early universe models and slow-roll inflation models, to the problem of cosmic topology, to non-isotropic cosmologies like mixmaster universes and Bianchi IX gravitational instantons, and to multifractal structures in cosmology.Relations between noncommutative and algebro-geometric methods in cosmology is also discussed, including the occurrence of motives, periods, and modular forms in spectral models of gravity.
This is the first existing volume that collects lectures on this important and fast developing subject in mathematics. The lectures are given by leading experts in the field and the range of topics is kept as broad as possible by including both the algebraic and the differential aspects of noncommutative geometry as well as recent applications to theoretical physics and number theory.
Exploring common themes in modern art, mathematics, and science, including the concept of space, the notion of randomness, and the shape of the cosmos. This is a book about art—and a book about mathematics and physics. In Lumen Naturae (the title refers to a purely immanent, non-supernatural form of enlightenment), mathematical physicist Matilde Marcolli explores common themes in modern art and modern science—the concept of space, the notion of randomness, the shape of the cosmos, and other puzzles of the universe—while mapping convergences with the work of such artists as Paul Cezanne, Mark Rothko, Sol LeWitt, and Lee Krasner. Her account, focusing on questions she has investigated in her own scientific work, is illustrated by more than two hundred color images of artworks by modern and contemporary artists. Thus Marcolli finds in still life paintings broad and deep philosophical reflections on space and time, and connects notions of space in mathematics to works by Paul Klee, Salvador Dalí, and others. She considers the relation of entropy and art and how notions of entropy have been expressed by such artists as Hans Arp and Fernand Léger; and traces the evolution of randomness as a mode of artistic expression. She analyzes the relation between graphical illustration and scientific text, and offers her own watercolor-decorated mathematical notebooks. Throughout, she balances discussions of science with explorations of art, using one to inform the other. (She employs some formal notation, which can easily be skipped by general readers.) Marcolli is not simply explaining art to scientists and science to artists; she charts unexpected interdependencies that illuminate the universe.
The first instances of deformation theory were given by Kodaira and Spencer for complex structures and by Gerstenhaber for associative algebras. Since then, deformation theory has been applied as a useful tool in the study of many other mathematical structures, and even today it plays an important role in many developments of modern mathematics. This volume collects a few self-contained and peer-reviewed papers by experts which present up-to-date research topics in algebraic and motivic topology, quantum field theory, algebraic geometry, noncommutative geometry and the deformation theory of Poisson algebras. They originate from activities at the Max-Planck-Institute for Mathematics and the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics in Bonn.
This book presents recent and ongoing research work aimed at understanding the mysterious relation between the computations of Feynman integrals in perturbative quantum field theory and the theory of motives of algebraic varieties and their periods. The main question is whether residues of Feynman integrals always evaluate to periods of mixed Tate motives, as appears to be the case from extensive computations of Feynman integrals carried out by Broadhurst and Kreimer. Two different approaches to the subject are described. The first, a "bottom-up" approach, constructs explicit algebraic varieties and periods from Feynman graphs and parametric Feynman integrals. This approach grew out of work of Bloch–Esnault–Kreimer and suggests that, while the algebraic varieties associated to the Feynman graphs can be arbitrarily complicated as motives, the part that is involved in the Feynman integral computation might still be of the special mixed Tate kind. A second, "top-down" approach to the problem, developed in the work of Connes and the author, consists of comparing a Tannakian category constructed out of the data of renormalization with those formed by mixed Tate motives. The book draws connections between these two approaches and gives an overview of various ongoing directions of research in the field. The text is aimed at researchers in mathematical physics, high energy physics, number theory and algebraic geometry. Based on lecture notes for a graduate course given by the author at Caltech in the fall of 2008, it cal also be used by graduate students interested in working in this area.
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