Abstracts for Felix Klein Lectures 2011

Quantum field theory has many roles, and the lectures will be about three of them. The primary role is to provide a description of all of fundamental physics when gravity is firmly excluded. A second, at first surprising, role has emerged from string theory, which is a theory of gravitation: it turns out that a two-dimensional field theory can be regarded as a generalized manifold, and in particular can be a model for space-time.

Video: 

segal_qft_2011_part2.flv

segal_qft_2011_part2.mp4

segal_qft_2011_part2.webm

Quantum field theory has many roles, and the lectures will be about three of them. The primary role is to provide a description of all of fundamental physics when gravity is firmly excluded. A second, at first surprising, role has emerged from string theory, which is a theory of gravitation: it turns out that a two-dimensional field theory can be regarded as a generalized manifold, and in particular can be a model for space-time.

Video: 

segal_qft_2011_part4.mp4

segal_qft_2011_part4.webm