Search Results for: simons

Interview With Simons and Yang

Posted on June 1, 2009 by woit

Steve Miller pointed me to a fascinating interview with Jim Simons and C. N. Yang, available on YouTube here. Simons tells the story of how he got kicked out of his job at the IDA in 1968 over his opposition … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Freed on Chern-Simons

Posted on August 20, 2008 by woit

Dan Freed has a wonderful preprint out on the arXiv this evening, based on a talk he gave at the celebration of MSRI’s 25th anniversary, entitled Remarks on Chern-Simons Theory. It’s mainly about the current state of attempts to better … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook

Posted on February 27, 2008 by woit

Today here in New York City there will be a formal announcement by governor Eliot Spitzer of a gift by Jim Simons of $60 million dollars to fund a new research center at SUNY Stony Brook, to be called the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Simons Donation to Stony Brook

Posted on May 9, 2006 by woit

Stony Brook announced yesterday that Jim Simons will be making a $25 million dollar donation to the university, focused in the area of mathematics and physics. This is a great deal of money for a math or physics department, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Jim Simons in the New York Times

Posted on November 19, 2005 by woit

There’s an article (unfortunately not available for free) in today’s New York Times based on an interview with the normally publicity-shy mathematician Jim Simons of Chern-Simons fame. Simons runs the incredibly successful hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, and I’ve written something … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Chern-Simons-Witten, Some History

Posted on October 26, 2004 by woit

Lubos Motl is promoting a revisionist history of topological quantum field theory according to which it was all inspired by string theory. Unlike him, I was working on the subject at the time it was developed, and remember the history … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Uncategorized | 24 Comments

Spring Course

Posted on January 11, 2024 by woit

Starting next week I’ll be teaching a graduate topics course, with the general plan to develop much of the quantum field theory of the Standard Model in a form accessible to mathematicians, emphasizing the connections to representation theory. There’s a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

String Theory Hype Fest

Posted on January 5, 2024 by woit

I just finished watching the video here, which was released today. Since this was advertised as a panel discussion on the state of string theory, I thought earlier today that it might be a good opportunity to write something serious … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 62 Comments

Kontsevich on the Hodge and Tate conjectures

Posted on April 26, 2023 by woit

Yesterday afternoon there was an event at CUNY featuring a panel discussion on Chern-Simons terms. Nothing new there, although it was interesting to hear first-hand from Witten the story of how he came up with the Chern-Simons-Witten theory. One piece … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

The Trouble With Path Integrals, Part I

Posted on February 16, 2023 by woit

Two things recently made me think I should write something about path integrals: Quanta magazine has a new article out entitled How Our Reality May Be a Sum of All Possible Realities and Tony Zee has a new book out, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments