Related papers: An Interview with Murray Gell-Mann on June 5 2001

Origins of contemporary $B$-physics. Mesons with beauty and charm. Stable tetraquarks? Flavor and the problem of identity. Top matters. Electroweak symmetry breaking and the Higgs sector. Future instruments.

Much of the recent progress in String Theory can be traced to a precise strategy: a careful study of the few models known since the beginnings of the subject, and the abstraction from them of basic properties that one would like to demand…

Using as a springboard a three-way debate between theoretical physicist Lee Smolin, philosopher of science Nancy Cartwright and myself, I address in layman's terms the issues of why we need a unified theory of the fundamental interactions…

After summarizing the status concerning CP violation in 1998 I describe the exciting developments of the last two years and extrapolate to the future. I comment on recent lessons about T and CPT invariance maninly from CPLEAR and emphasize…

Littlewood--Paley theory began with the classic paper of Littlewood and Paley (J.\ E.\ Littlewood, R.\ E.\ A.\ C.\ Paley, {\em Theorems on Fourier Series and Power Series}. J. Lond. Math. Soc. (1), {\bf 6} (1931), 230--33). We discuss this…

This is a broad-brush review of how string theory addresses several important questions of gravitational physics. The problem of non-renormalizability is first reviewed, followed by introduction of string theory as an ultraviolet-finite…

I describe our understanding of physics near the planck length, in particular the great progress of the last four years in string theory. Superstring theory, and a recent extension called M theory, are leading candidates for a quantum…

The article surveys aspects of the Fourier-Mukai transform, its relative version and some of its applications in string theory. To appear in Encyclopedia of Mathematical Physics, published by Elsevier in early 2006. Comments/corrections…

These lectures begin by reviewing the evidence for S duality of the toroidally compactified heterotic string in 4d that was obtained in the period 1992--94. Next they review recently discovered dualities that relate all five of the 10d…

This note begins with an introduction to the inverse isospectral problem popularized by M. Kac's 1966 article in the American Mathematical Monthly, "Can one hear the shape of a drum?" Although the answer has been known for some twenty years…

We discuss some possible relationships in gauge theories, string theory and M theory in the light of some recent results obtained in gauge invariant supersymmetric quantum mechanics. In particular this reveals a new relationship between the…

In 1918, H. Weyl proposed a unified theory of gravity and electromagnetism based on a generalization of Riemannian geometry. In spite of its elegance and beauty, a serious objection was raised by Einstein, who argued that Weyl's theory was…

I quickly review the successes of quantum chromodynamics. Then I assess the current state of the electroweak theory, making brief comments about the search for the Higgs boson and some of the open issues for the theory. I sketch the…

The holomorphy of the superpotential along with symmetries gives very strong constraints on any stringy non-perturbative effects. This observation suggests an approach to string phenomenology. (Presented at ``Strings 95'', March 1995.

We study strong coupling effects in four-dimensional heterotic string models where supersymmetry is spontaneously broken with large internal dimensions, consistently with perturbative unification of gauge couplings. These effects give rise…

"Symmetry" was one of the most important methodological themes in 20th-century physics and is probably going to play no lesser role in physics of the 21st century. As used today, there are a variety of interpretations of this term, which…

Duality, the equivalence between seemingly distinct quantum systems, is a curious property that has been known for at least three quarters of a century. In the past two decades it has played a central role in mapping out the structure of…

In his essay "Nature Conformable to Herself" the late Murray Gell-Mann expands on an observation of Newton that theories of seemingly disparate phenomena in the universe often make use of similar ideas and similar mathematical structure.…

The second string revolution, which begin around 1995, has led to a drastic alteration in our perception of the universe, perhaps even more so then did the first string revolution of 1984. That is, extending 10-dimensional string theory to…

We study compactifications of the 6d E-string theory, the theory of a small E_8 instanton, to four dimensions. In particular we identify N=1 field theories in four dimensions corresponding to compactifications on arbitrary Riemann surfaces…