My Encounters—as a Physicist—with Mathematics

Mathematical physics is not a discipline with its own identity. Rather there is mathematics and there is physics, and their cyclical relationship enjoys periods of cooperation interspersed with periods of mutual indifference. New initiatives leading to rapid development in physics frequently are accompanied by mathematical innovation. Examples from the past are the construction of particle mechanics and differential calculus by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, developments in general relativity and differential geometry at the time of Albert Einstein and Hermann Minkowski, and advances in group theory and analysis following the invention of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory.

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