| Special Lecture | |
| Topic: | (1) Quantum Beauty; (2) Beauty in Mathematics |
| Speaker: | (1) Frank Wilczek; (2) Enrico Bombieri |
| Affiliation: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Professor Emeritus, IAS |
| Date: | Tuesday, December 11 |
| Time/Room: | 2:45pm - 4:00pm/S-101 |
(1)
My lecture revolves around a question:
Does the world embody beautiful ideas?
That is a question that people have thought about for a long time. Pythagoras and Plato intuited that the world should embody beautiful ideas; Newton and Maxwell demonstrated how the world could embody beautiful ideas, in specific impressive cases. Finally in the 20th century in modern physics, and especially in quantum physics, we find a definitive answer: Yes! -- The world does embody beautiful ideas.
Ill present the intellectual history, bringing in relevant artistic images, and discuss how esthetic considerations continue to guide our search for ultimate physical laws.