Publisher's Synopsis
One of the greatest challenges that theoretical physics faces at the end of the century is to blend together the two revolutions of the beginning of the century, namely general relativity and quantum mechanics. One message that has become clear from the start and is common to both revolutions is that there is no limit to the level of sophistication of mathematics that will become essential to physics.;This book comprises the lecture notes of the 1995 Les Houches Summer School. The aim of the school was to cover a wide range of areas, from theoretical physics to abstract mathematics, that are relevant in the search of a quantum theory of gravity. The lectures provide a systematic introduction to topological and conformal field theories, supersymmetry and super Yang-Mills theories, string theory and superstring dualities, integrable lattice models and quantum groups, non-commutative geometry and the theory of diffeomorphism groups. It is directed at graduate students and researchers in theoretical physics and mathematics.
