This invaluable monograph has arisen in part from E Witten's lectures on topological quantum field theory in the spring of 1989 at Princeton University. At that time Witten unified several important mathematical works in terms of quantum field theory, most notably the Donaldson polynomial, the Gromov-Floer homology and the Jones polynomials.In his lectures, among other things, Witten explained his intrinsic three-dimensional construction of Jones polynomials via Chern-Simons gauge theory. He provided both a rigorous proof of the geometric quantization of the Chern-Simons action and a very illuminating view as to how the quantization arises from quantization of the space of connections. He constructed a projective flat connection for the Hilbert space bundle over the space of complex structures, which becomes the Knizhik-Zamolodchikov equations in a special case. His construction leads to many beautiful applications, such as the derivation of the skein relation and the surgery formula for knot invariant, a proof of Verlinde's formula, and the establishment of a connection with conformal field theory.In this book, Sen Hu has added material to provide some of the details left out of Witten's lectures and to update some new developments. In Chapter 4 he presents a construction of knot invariant via representation of mapping class groups based on the work of Moore-Seiberg and Kohno. In Chapter 6 he offers an approach to constructing knot invariant from string theory and topological sigma models proposed by Witten and Vafa. The localization principle is a powerful tool to build mathematical foundations for such cohomological quantum field theories.In addition, some highly relevant material by S S Chern and E Witten has been included as appendices for the convenience of readers: (1) Complex Manifold without Potential Theory by S S Chern, pp148-154. (2) “Geometric quantization of Chern-Simons gauge theory” by S Axelrod, S D Pietra and E Witten. (3) “On holomorphic factorization of WZW and Coset models” by E Witten.

Presents the current state of knowledge in all aspects of two-dimensional homotopy theory. Useful for both students and experts.

This textbook, pitched at the advanced-undergraduate to beginning-graduate level, focuses on mathematical topics of relevance in contemporary physics that are not usually covered in texts at the same level. Its main purpose is to help students appreciate and take advantage of the modern trend of very productive symbiosis between physics and mathematics. Three major areas are covered: (1) linear operators; (2) group representations and Lie algebra representations; and (3) topology and differential geometry. The features of this work include: an exposition style which is a fusion of those common in the standard physics and mathematics literatures; a level of exposition that varies from quite elementary to moderately advanced, so that the text should be of interest to a wide audience; a strong degree of thematic unity, despite the diversity of the topics covered; and cross references, so that, from any part of the book, the reader can trace easily where specific concepts or techniques are introduced.

This textbook, pitched at the advanced-undergraduate to beginning-graduate level, focuses on mathematical topics of relevance in contemporary physics that are not usually covered in texts at the same level. Its main purpose is to help students appreciate and take advantage of the modern trend of very productive symbiosis between physics and mathematics. Three major areas are covered: (1) linear operators; (2) group representations and Lie algebra representations; (3) topology and differential geometry.The following are noteworthy features of this book: the style of exposition is a fusion of those common in the standard physics and mathematics literatures; the level of exposition varies from quite elementary to moderately advanced, so that the book is of interest to a wide audience; despite the diversity of the topics covered, there is a strong degree of thematic unity; much care is devoted to detailed cross-referencing so that, from any part of the book, the reader can trace easily where specific concepts or techniques are introduced.

The International Symposium on Frontiers of Science was held to celebrate the 80th birthday of Chen Ning Yang, one of the great physicists of the 20th century and arguably the most-admired living scientist in China today. Many of the world's great scientists — including sixteen Nobel laureates, Fields medallists and Wolf Prize winners — converged on Beijing from all corners of the globe to pay tribute to Professor Yang.The Symposium was organized by Tsinghua University, with which Professor Yang has had a lifelong relationship. In 1997, he helped to found the Center for Advanced Study at Tsinghua, was appointed to the university's faculty, and has since devoted his energy to the growth of the Center.This unique and invaluable birthday volume is a collection of the presentations made at the Symposium, including fifteen plenary talks, seven of which are by Nobel laureates. It covers a wide range of topics and mirrors Professor Yang's research and intellectual interests. The range of fields encompasses high-energy, condensed-matter, mathematical, applied, bio-, astro-, atomic and quantum physics. Also included are talks given at the birthday banquet.About C N YangBorn in 1922 in Anwhei, China, C N Yang was brought up in the academic atmosphere of Tsinghua University in Beijing, where his father was a professor of mathematics. He received his college education at the National Southwest Associated University in Kunming, China, and completed his BSc there in 1942. His MSc was received in 1944 from Tsinghua University. He entered the University of Chicago in 1946, where he came under the strong influence of Prof E Fermi. After receiving his PhD in 1948, Prof Yang served for a year at the University of Chicago as an instructor. Since 1949 he has been associated with the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, where he became a professor in 1955.Prof Yang has worked on various subjects in physics, but is mainly interested in statistical mechanics and symmetry principles. He is a prolific author, his numerous articles appearing in the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, The Physical Review, Reviews of Modern Physics and the Chinese Journal of Physics.Prof Yang won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957, jointly with T-D Lee. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of Academia Sinica.

The International Symposium on Frontiers of Science was held to celebrate the 80th birthday of Chen Ning Yang, one of the great physicists of the 20th century and arguably the most-admired living scientist in China today. Many of the world's great scientists ? including sixteen Nobel laureates, Fields medallists and Wolf Prize winners ? converged on Beijing from all corners of the globe to pay tribute to Professor Yang.The Symposium was organized by Tsinghua University, with which Professor Yang has had a lifelong relationship. In 1997, he helped to found the Center for Advanced Study at Tsinghua, was appointed to the university's faculty, and has since devoted his energy to the growth of the Center.This unique and invaluable birthday volume is a collection of the presentations made at the Symposium, including fifteen plenary talks, seven of which are by Nobel laureates. It covers a wide range of topics and mirrors Professor Yang's research and intellectual interests. The range of fields encompasses high-energy, condensed-matter, mathematical, applied, bio-, astro-, atomic and quantum physics. Also included are talks given at the birthday banquet.About C N YangBorn in 1922 in Anwhei, China, C N Yang was brought up in the academic atmosphere of Tsinghua University in Beijing, where his father was a professor of mathematics. He received his college education at the National Southwest Associated University in Kunming, China, and completed his BSc there in 1942. His MSc was received in 1944 from Tsinghua University. He entered the University of Chicago in 1946, where he came under the strong influence of Prof E Fermi. After receiving his PhD in 1948, Prof Yang served for a year at the University of Chicago as an instructor. Since 1949 he has been associated with the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, where he became a professor in 1955.Prof Yang has worked on various subjects in physics, but is mainly interested in statistical mechanics and symmetry principles. He is a prolific author, his numerous articles appearing in the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, The Physical Review, Reviews of Modern Physics and the Chinese Journal of Physics.Prof Yang won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957, jointly with T-D Lee. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of Academia Sinica.

In 1989, Edward Witten discovered a deep relationship between quantum field theory and knot theory, and this beautiful discovery created a new field of research called Chern-Simons theory. This field has the remarkable feature of intertwining a large number of diverse branches of research in mathematics and physics, among them low-dimensional topology, differential geometry, quantum algebra, functional and stochastic analysis, quantum gravity, and string theory. The 20-year anniversary of Witten's discovery provided an opportunity to bring together researchers working in Chern-Simons theory for a meeting, and the resulting conference, which took place during the summer of 2009 at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, included many of the leading experts in the field. This volume documents the activities of the conference and presents several original research articles, including another monumental paper by Witten that is sure to stimulate further activity in this and related fields. This collection will provide an excellent overview of the current research directions and recent progress in Chern-Simons gauge theory.

This new (second) edition contains a general treatment of quantum field theory (QFT) in a simple scalar field setting in addition to the modern material on the applications of differential geometry and topology, group theory, and the theory of linear operators to physics found in the first edition. All these are introduced without assuming more background on the part of the reader than a good foundation in undergraduate (junior) level mathematical physics. The new material entirely focuses on an introduction to quantum field theory, emphasizing the Feynman path (functional integral) approach to QFT and the renormalization group. With respect to the latter, the focus is on an introduction of its application to critical phenomena in statistical physics, following the outgrowth of the Callan-Symanzik equation originally developed in the context of high energy physics, and the seminal contributions of Kenneth Wilson. One of the overriding aims of the new material is also to draw students' attention to the deep connections between high energy physics and statistical mechanics. The unavoidable technical aspects are explained with a minimum of prerequisite material and jargon, and conceptual understanding is always given prominence before mastery of technical details, but the importance of the latter is never underestimated. Derivational details and motivational discussions are provided in abundance in order to ensure continuity of reading, and to avoid trying the readers' patience.

This volume contains a set of pedagogical reviews covering the most recent applications of low-dimensional quantum field theory in condensed matter physics, written by experts who have made major contributions to this rapidly developing field of research. The main purpose is to introduce active young researchers to new ideas and new techniques which are not covered by the standard textbooks.