Mathematics in the 20th Century Author(s): Michael Atiyah Source: The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 108, No.

7 (Aug. - Sep., 2001), pp. 654-666 Published by: Mathematical Association of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2695275 . Accessed: 12/09/2011 18:56
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THE EVOLUTION OF...

Editedby Abe Shenitzer and John Stillwell

Mathematics in the 20th Century'

Michael Atiyah
If you talk aboutthe end of one centuryandthe beginningof the next you have two overthe pasthundred choices,bothof themdifficult.Oneis to surveythe mathematics of the next hundred years.I have choyears;the otheris to predictthe mathematics sen the more difficulttask. Everybodycan predictand we will not be aroundto find out whetherwe were wrong.But giving an impressionof the past is somethingthat can disagreewith. everybody and All I can do is give you a personalview. It is impossibleto cover everything, I will leave out significant in particular partsof the story,partlybecauseI am not an expert,andpartlybecausethey arecoveredelsewhere.I will say nothing,for example, aboutthe greatevents in the areabetweenlogic and computingassociatedwith the Nor will I say muchaboutthe applinamesof peoplelike Hilbert,G6del,andTuring. physics,becausethey areso numerous exceptin fundamental cationsof mathematics, Eachwouldrequire a lectureto itself. Moreover, andtheyneed suchspecialtreatment. or even a list of famousmathethereis no pointin tryingto givejust a list of theorems a dull exercise.So instead years.Thatwouldbe rather maticians overthe last hundred I am going to try andpick out some themesthatI thinkrunacrossthe boardin many whathas happened. ways andunderline We do not really Centuries arecrudenumbers. Let me firstmakea generalremark. yearssomethingsuddenlystopsandstartsagain.So when believethataftera hundred I am going to be rather I describethe mathematics of the 20th century, cavalierabout in the 1890s andmovedinto the 1900s,I shallignoresuch dates.If somethingstarted In numbers. and workin ratherapproximate detail.I will behavelike an astronomer fact, many things startedin the 19th centuryand only came to fruitionin the 20th century. One of the difficultiesof this exerciseis thatit is very hardto put oneself back in the positionof whatit was like in 1900 to be a mathematician, becauseso muchof the of the last century has been absorbed by us. It is veryhard by ourculture, mathematics to imaginea time whenpeopledid not thinkin ourterms.In fact, if you makea really You simply get you will get omittedaltogether! discoveryin mathematics important absorbed into the background. So going back,you have to try to imaginewhatit was erawhenpeopledid not thinkin ourway. like in a different 1. LOCAL TO GLOBAL. I am going to startby listing some themes and talking them.My firstthemeis broadlyunderwhatyou mightcall the passagefrom around the local to the global.In the classicalperiodpeopleon the whole wouldhave studied and so on. In this century,the emphasis thingson a small scale, in local coordinates And becauseglobal the global,large-scale has shiftedto try andunderstand behavior. much of it is done qualitatively, and topobehavioris more difficultto understand, It was Poincarewho both madethe pioneering logical ideas become very important.
'This articleis based on a transcriptof a recordingof the author'sFields Lecture at the WorldMathematical Year 2000 Symposium, Toronto,June 7-9, 2000.

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stepsin topologyandforecastthattopologywouldbe an important ingredient in 20thcenturymathematics. Incidentally, Hilbert,who madehis famouslist of problems, did not. Topologyhardlyfigured in his list of problems. But for Poincare it was quiteclear thatit wouldbe an important factor. Let me try to list a few of the areasandyou can see whatI havein mind.Consider, for example,complexanalysis("function theory",as it was called), whichwas at the centerof mathematics in the 19thcentury, the workof greatfigureslike Weierstrass. For them, a functionwas a functionof one complex variableand for Weierstrass a functionwas a powerseries,something you couldlay yourhandson, writedown,and describeexplicitly;or a formula.Functionswere formulas: they were explicitthings. But then the workof Abel, Riemann,and subsequent people movedus away,so that functions becamedefinednotjustby explicitformulas butmoreby theirglobalproperties: by wheretheirsingularities were, wheretheirdomainsof definitionwere, where they took theirvalues.These globalproperties were the distinguishing characteristic featureof the function.The local expansionwas only one way of lookingat it. A similarsortof storyoccurswith differential equations. Originally, to solve a differentialequationpeople wouldhave lookedfor an explicitlocal solution:something you could write down and lay your handson. As things evolved, solutionsbecame implicit.You could not necessarilydescribethemin nice formulas.The singularities of the solutionwerethe thingsthatreallydetermined its globalproperties. Thisis very muchsimilarin spirit,butdifferent in complexanalysis. in detail,to whathappened In differential geometry,the classical work of Gauss and otherswould have describedsmall pieces of space, small bits of curvature and the local equationsthat describelocal geometry.The shift from there to the large scale is a rathernatural the global overallpictureof curvedsurfacesand one, whereyou wantto understand the topology that goes with them. When you move from the small to the large, the becomethe ones thataremost significant. topologicalfeatures fit into the sameframework, number Althoughit does not apparently theoryshared a similardevelopment. Numbertheorists whatthey call the "localtheory", distinguish wherethey talk abouta single prime,one prime at a time, or a finite set of primes, This analogy andthe "globaltheory",whereyou considerall primessimultaneously. betweenprimesandpoints,betweenthe local andglobal,has had an important effect in the development of number theory,andthe ideas thathavetakenplace in topology havehadtheirimpacton number theory. In physics, of course, classical physics is concernedwith the local story,where you write down the differential equationthat governsthe small-scalebehavior;and then you have to studythe large-scalebehaviorof a physicalsystem. All physics is concernedreally with predictingwhat will happenwhen you go from a small scale, to a large scale, and follow throughto the whereyou understand whatis happening, conclusions. It is whatI call the 2. INCREASEIN DIMENSIONS. My secondthemeis different. increasein dimensions. Again,we startwiththe classicaltheoryof complexvariables: the theoryof one complex variable classical complexvariabletheorywas primarily fundamenstudiedin detail,with greatrefinement. The shiftto two or morevariables andin thatareanewphenomena Not everything tallytookplacein thiscentury, appear. is just the same as in one variable.There are quite new features,and the theoryof n variables one of the majorsuccess storiesof has becomemoreandmoredominant, this century. curvesand Again, differential geometersin the past wouldhave studiedprimarily surfaces.We now studythe geometryof n-dimensional manifolds,and you have to August-September 2001]
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thinkcarefullyto realize that this was a majorshift. In the early days, curves and surfaceswere thingsyou could really see in space.Higherdimensionswere slightly butperhaps you did not take fictitious,thingsthatyou could imaginemathematically, themseriously.The idea thatyou took these thingsseriouslyand studiedthem to an of the 20thcentury. Also, it wouldnothavebeennearly equaldegreeis reallya product the number of funcso obviousto our 19th-century predecessors to thinkof increasing functions. tions,to studynot only one functionbut severalfunctions,or vector-valued varianddependent So we have seen an increasein the numberboth of independent ables. buttherethe increasein with morevariables, Linearalgebra was alwaysconcerned dimensionwas to be more drastic.It went from finite dimensionsto infinitedimenThere sions, fromlinearspaceto Hilbertspace,with an infinitenumberof variables. was, of course, analysisinvolved.After functionsof many variables,you can have They functionals. Thesearefunctionson the spaceof functions. functionsof functions, all have essentiallyinfinitelymanyvariables,andthatis whatwe call the calculusof A similarstorywas developingwith general(non-linear) variations. functions,an old in the 20th century. So thatis subject,butone thatreallywas cominginto prominence my secondtheme. TO NON-COMMUTATIVE. A thirdthemeis the shift from 3. COMMUTATIVE feato non-commutative. This is perhapsone of the most characteristic commutative The non-commutative turesof mathematics, algebra,in the 20th century. particularly and, of course, its roots are in the aspectof algebrahas been extremelyprominent, the 19thcentury.It has diverseroots. Hamilton'swork on quatemionswas probably in factby ideashavingto do andhada majorimpact,motivated singlebiggestsurprise with physics.Therewas the workof Grassmann on exterioralgebras-anotheralgein ourtheoryof differential forms.Of course, braicsystemthathas nowbeen absorbed the workof Cayleyon matrices, basedon linearalgebra,andthatof Galois,basedon grouptheory,were otherhighlights. of All these are differentways or strandsthat form the basis of the introduction into algebra,which is the breadand butterof 20thnon-commutative multiplication We do not thinkanything of it, butin the 19thcenturyall machinery. centuryalgebraic Of theseforegoingexampleswere,in theirdifferent ways, tremendous breakthroughs. of these ideas came quite surprisingly in differentdirections. course,the applications in physicscamewith Theapplications multiplication of matrices andnon-commutative The Heisenberg commutation example relationsarea mostimportant quantum theory. exof a significant of non-commutative algebrain physics, subsequently application of operators. tendedby von Neumann into his theoryof algebras featureof the 20thcenturyandI shallreturn Group theoryhas alsobeen a dominant to this later. 4. LINEAR TO NON-LINEAR. My next theme is the passagefrom the linearto linear the non-linear. are eitherfundamentally Largepartsof classical mathematics linear,studiedby some sort of perturbation or, if not exactly linear,approximately expansion.The really non-linearphenomenaare much harder,and have only been seriouslytackledin this century. The story startsoff with geometry:Euclideangeometry,geometryof the plane, of space,of straight lines, everything linear;andthen throughvariousstages of nonto Riemann's moregeneralgeometry, wherethingsarefundamenEuclidean geometry In differential phenomena equations,the seriousstudyof non-linear tally non-linear. has thrownup a whole rangeof new phenomena thatyou do not see in the classical
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I mightjust pick out two here, solitons and chaos, two very differentastreatments. and equations thathavebecomeextremely prominent pectsof the theoryof differential unexextremes.Solitonsrepresent in this century. Theyrepresent alternative popular andchaosrepresents differential equations, of non-linear behavior pectedlyorganized behavior.Both of them are presentin differentregimes, disorganized unexpectedly non-linear phenomena. but they arefundamentally andimportant, andareinteresting into the work on solitons of some of the Again,you can traceback the earlyhistory but only very slightly. 19th century, last partof the equationsof electrothe fundamental In physics, of course,Maxwell'sequations, the famous equations.Their counterparts, magnetism,are linear partialdifferential thatare supposedto governthe forces equations equations, arenon-linear Yang-Mills becausethe YangThe equationsare non-linear, of matter. involvedin the structure Mills equationsare essentiallymatrixversionsof Maxwell'sequations,and the fact termin the equations. thatmatricesdo not commuteis whatproducesthe non-linear Nonlinkbetweennon-linearity andnon-commutativity. So herewe see an interesting kind,andthis is particularly of a particular does producenon-linearity commutativity andimportant. interesting 5. GEOMETRY VERSUS ALGEBRA. So far I have picked out a few general thathas been with us themes.I wantnow to talk abouta dichotomyin mathematics andgives me a chanceto makesome all the time, oscillatingbackwards andforwards, I referto the dichotomy betweengeometryand or remarks. speculations philosophical andbothare andalgebraarethe two formalpillarsof mathematics, Geometry algebra. very ancient.Geometrygoes backto the Greeksandbefore;algebragoes backto the but they to mathematics, Arabsandthe Indians,so they have both been fundamental havehad an uneasyrelationship. Let me startwith the historyof the subject.Euclideangeometryis the primeexuntil the introduction theory,and it was firmlygeometrical ampleof a mathematical plane.That in whatwe now call the Cartesian by Descartesof algebraiccoordinates This was, of to algebraic to reducegeometrical manipulation. thinking was an attempt fromthe side of the algebraists. on geometry or a big attack course,a big breakthrough If you comparein analysisthe workof NewtonandLeibniz,they belong to different an alNewtonwas fundamentally a geometer,Leibnizwas fundamentally traditions: gebraist,and therewere good, profoundreasonsfor that.For Newton,geometry,or to describethe laws of attempt the calculusas he developedit, was the mathematical He was concerned withphysicsin a broadsense, andphysicstookplace in the nature. how things worked,you thoughtin If you wantedto understand worldof geometry. pictures.Whenhe termsof the physicalworld,you thoughtin termsof geometrical developedthe calculus,he wantedto develop a form of it that would be as close as used geometricalarguments, possible to the physicalcontextbehindit. He therefore becausethat was keepingclose to the meaning.Leibniz,on the otherhand,had the it into a big the whole of mathematics, turning aim, of formalizing aim,the ambitious They also algebraicmachine.This was totally opposedto the Newtonianapproach. between Newton used very differentnotations.As we know, in the big controversy andLeibniz,Leibniz'snotationwon out. We havefollowedhis way of writingderivatives. Newton'sspiritis still there,butit got buriedfor a long time. years ago, the two majorfigureswere By the end of the 19thcentury,a hundred I havementioned themalready, andthey are,verycrudelyspeakandHilbert. Poincare Poincare's thoughtwas morein the ing, disciplesof NewtonandLeibnizrespectively. insight.Hilbertwas topology,using those ideas as a fundamental spiritof geometry, he wantedto axiomatize,formalize,andgive rigorous,formal,premorea formalist; 2001] August-September
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thoughanygreatmathematician traditions, Theyclearlybelongto different sentations. cannotbe easily categorized. namesfromour I shouldputdownsomefurther this talk,I thought Whenpreparing It is verydifficult of thesetraditions. thecontinuation who represent generation present to talk aboutliving people-whom to put on the list? I then thoughtto myself: who chosen wouldmindbeing put on eitherside of such a famouslist? I have, therefore, andBourbaki tradition, of the Poincare-Newton two names:Arnol'das the inheritor as, I think,the most famousdiscipleof DavidHilbert.Arnol'dmakesno bones about the fact that his view of mechanics,in fact, of physics, is that it is fundamentally in between,withthe exceptionof a few goingbackto Newton;everything geometrical, triedto peoplelike Riemann,who was a bit of a digression,was a mistake.Bourbaki mathematics andformalizing of Hilbertof axiomatizing carryon the formalprogram extent,with some success.Eachpointof view has its merits,butthere to a remarkable is tensionbetweenthem. betweengeometryandalgebra. Letme tryto explainmy own view of the difference is, of course,aboutspace;of thatthereis no question.If I look out at the Geometry I can take audiencein this roomI can see a lot, in one single secondor microsecond andthatis, of course,not an accident.Ourbrainshave of information in a vastamount with vision. Vision, in such a way thatthey areextremelyconcerned beenconstructed uses up somethinglike 80 I understand from friendswho work in neurophysiology, or 90 percentof the cortex of the brain.There are about 17 differentcentersin the brain,each of which is specializedin a differentpartof the processof vision: some some partswith colour, with vertical,some partswith horizontal, partsare concerned Underwith meaningandinterpretation. finallysomepartsareconcerned perspective, partof our standing,and makingsense of, the worldthatwe see is a very important is an enormously powerful spatialintuitionor spatialperception evolution.Therefore tool, andthatis why geometryis actuallysuch a powerfulpartof mathematics-not but even for things that are not. We only for things that are obviously geometrical, try to put them into geometricalform because that enablesus to use our intuition. Our intuitionis our most powerfultool. That is quite clear if you try to explain a to a studentor a colleague.Youhave a long, difficultargument piece of mathematics Whatdoes the studentsay? The studentsays, "I and finallythe studentunderstands. and we use the word "perception" with understanding, see!" Seeing is synonymous is of the Englishlanguage.It wouldbe At this true to meanboththingsas well. least that I other languages. thinkit is very fundamental to comparethis with interesting a vast amount to absorb enormous with this capacity the humanmind has evolved takes that and pervisual action, and mathematics of information by instantaneous fects it. Algebra,on the otherhand (and you may not have thoughtaboutit like this), is kindof algebrayou are doing, a sequence concerned essentiallywith time. Whatever one the and "one afterthe other"means you after other, is performed of operations cannot In universe imaginealgebra,but geometry a static you have got to have time. and I sit here and may change,butI can still nothing can see, is essentiallystatic. just that are have operations because with is concerned you time, see. Algebra,however, I do not mean I modern when algebra. just say "algebra", and, sequentially performed one after is a sequenceof stepsperformed anyprocessfor calculation, Any algorithm, takesits makesthatquiteclear.The moderncomputer the other,the modemcomputer in a streamof zeros andones andgives the answer. information in time, and geometryis concernedwith Algebrais concernedwith manipulation two different aspectsof the world,andtheyrepresent space. These aretwo orthogonal between mathematicians or Thus the in dialogue of view mathematics. argument points 658
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something of geometryandalgebra represents in thepastaboutthe relative importance veryfundamental. in which one side loses Of course,it does not pay to thinkof this as an argument you just andthe otherside wins. I like to thinkof it in the formof an analogy:"Should If you rather be deafor blind?" be an algebraist or a geometer?" is like saying"Would you areblind,you do not see space,if you aredeaf,you do not hear,andhearingtakes placein time. On the whole, we preferto havebothfaculties. In physics, thereis an analogous,roughlyparallel,divisionbetweenthe concepts and the experiments.Physics has two parts to it: theory-concepts, ideas, words, I thinkthatconceptsarein some broadsense gelaws-and experimental apparatus. ometrical,since they are concernedwith things takingplace in the real world. An You do someexperiment, on the otherhand,is morelike an algebraiccomputation. butthe basic you insertthemintoformulas, thingin time;you measuresomenumbers; tradition. conceptsbehindthe experiments area partof the geometrical is to One way to put the dichotomyin a morephilosophical or literaryframework Offer".As you say thatalgebrais to the geometerwhatyou mightcall the "Faustian he wantedby the devil in return know,Faustin Goethe'sstorywas offeredwhatever The for selling his soul. Algebrais the offer madeby the devil to the mathematician. devil says:"Iwill give you thispowerfulmachine,andit will answeranyquestionyou like. All you need to do is give me your soul: give up geometryand you will have Of course this marvellousmachine." [Nowadaysyou can thinkof it as a computer!] we like to have thingsboth ways: we wouldprobablycheaton the devil, pretendwe the dangerto our soul is there, areselling our soul, andnot give it away.Nevertheless calculation, essentiallyyou stop thinking; becausewhen you pass over into algebraic you stopthinkinggeometrically, you stopthinkingaboutthe meaning. I am a bit hardon the algebraists here, but fundamentally the purposeof algebra always was to producea formulathat one could put into a machine,turn a handle it into a and get the answer.You took somethingthathad a meaning;you converted In thatprocessyou do not needto thinkanymore andyou got out the answer. formula; to in the geometry. Youlose aboutwhatthe differentstagesin the algebracorrespond the insights and this can be important at differentstages. You must not give up the Youmightwantto come backto it lateron. Thatis whatI meanby insightaltogether! the Faustian Offer.I am sureit is provocative. This choicebetweengeometryandalgebra has led to hybridsthatconfusethe two, andnaive as andthe divisionbetweenalgebraandgeometryis not as straightforward I just said. For example,algebraists Whatis a diagram frequently will use diagrams. intuition? excepta concessionto geometrical 6. TECHNIQUESIN COMMON. Let me go back now to talk not so much about themesin termsof content,butperhapsin termsof techniquesandcommonmethods of commonmethodsthathavebeen thathavebeen used. I wantto describea number appliedin a whole rangeof fields.The firstis as a branchof topology. Homology Theory. Homologytheorystartsoff traditionally withthe followingsituation. Youhavea complicated It is concerned topologicalspace holes or thatinvolvescounting fromit somesimpleinformation andyou wantto extract you can associateto a complicated somethingsimilar,some additivelinearinvariants in a non-linearsituation. if you like, of linearinvariants space. It is a construction, andthenyou get what Geometrically, you thinkof cycles thatyou can addandsubtract tool that is calledthehomologygroupof a space.Homologyis a fundamental algebraic August-September 2001]
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was invented in the firsthalf of the centuryas a way of gettingsome information about topologicalspaces;some algebraextracted out of the geometry. Homologyalso appears in othercontexts.Anothersourceof homologytheorygoes back to Hilbertandthe studyof polynomials.Polynomialsare functionsthatare not linear,and you can multiplythem to get higher degrees.It was Hilbert'sgreat insight to consider"ideals",linearcombinations of polynomials,with commonzeros. He looked for generators of these ideals. Those generators might be redundant. He lookedat the relationsandthenfor relationsbetweenthe relations. He got a hierarchy of suchrelations, whichwerecalled"Hilbert syzygies",andthis theoryof Hilbertwas a very sophisticated way of tryingto reducea non-linear situation, the studyof polynomials,to a linearsituation.Essentially,Hilbertproduceda complicatedsystem of linearrelations thatencapsulates some of the information aboutnon-linear objects,the polynomials. This algebraictheoryis in fact very parallelto the topologicaltheory,and they have now got fused togetherinto what is called "homological algebra". In algebraic one of the greattriumphs of the cohogeometry, of the 1950s was the development mologytheoryof sheavesandits extensionto analyticgeometryby the Frenchschool of Leray,Cartan, of the topoSerre,andGrothendieck, whereyou havea combination logical ideas of Riemann-Poincare, the algebraicideas of Hilbert,and some analysis in for good measure. thrown It turnsout thathomologytheoryhas widerapplications still, in otherbranchesof algebra.You can introduce homology groups,which are always linearobjectsassociated to non-linearobjects.You can take groups,for examplefinite groups,or Lie bothhave homologygroupsassociatedto them.In number algebras: theorythereare veryimportant applications of homologytheory,through the Galoisgroup.So homology theoryhas turned out to be one of the powerfultools to analyzea whole rangeof of 20th-century situations, a typicalcharacteristic mathematics. whichis in manyways very similarto homologytheK-Theory. Anothertechnique, andpermeates was of later ory,hashadwide applications, manypartsof mathematics, it is something origin.It did not emergeuntilthe middleof the 20th century, although thathad its rootsmuchfurther back as well. It is called "K-theory", andit is actually closely relatedto representation theory.Representation theoryof, say, finite groups butits modemform,K-theory,is of morerecentorigin. goes backto the last century, K-theorycan also be thoughtof in the following way: it is the attemptto take matrixtheory,wherematricesdo not commuteundermultiplication, andtry to construct are Abelianor linearinvariants of matrices.Tracesanddimensionsand determinants of matrixtheoryandK-theoryis a systematic Abelianinvariants way of tryingto deal with them;it is sometimescalled "stablelinearalgebra". The idea is thatif you have large matrices,then a matrixA and a matrixB that do not commutewill commute if you put themin orthogonal positionsin differentblocks. Since in a big space you can move thingsaround, thenin some approximate way you mightthinkthis is going to be good enoughto give you some information, and thatis the basis of K-theory as a technique.It is analogousto homologytheory,in thatboth try to extractlinear out of complicated non-linear information situations. In algebraicgeometry,K-theorywas firstintroduced with remarkable success by in close relationto the storywe just discusseda momentago involving Grothendieck, sheaftheory,andin connection withhis workon the Riemann-Roch theorem. In topology,Hirzebruch andI copiedtheseideas andappliedthemin a purelytopoworkis relatedto Hilbert'sworkon logical context.In a sense, while Grothendieck's workon homology,ussyzygies, ourworkwas morerelatedto the Riemann-Poincare
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It also playeda role in the index functionsas opposedto polynomials. ing continuous equations. theoryof linearellipticpartialdifferential In a differentdirection,the algebraicside of the story,with potentialapplication to number theory,was then developedby Milnor,Quillen,and others,andhas led to questions. manyinteresting extendedthe analysis,the workof manypeople,includingKasparov, In functional The continuC*-algebras. continuousK-theoryto the situationof non-commutative but nonalgebraundermultiplication, ous functionson a space form a commutative analysisturns andfunctional analoguesof those arisein othersituations, commutative home for thesekindsof questions. out to be a verynatural partsof mathematics areawherea whole rangeof different So K-theoryis another in each case therearequitediffialthough simpleformalism, lendsitself to this rather cult technicalquestionsspecificto thatarea,whichconnectup with otherpartsof the with analogiesand subject.It is not a uniformtool; it is more a uniformframework, similarities betweenone partandthe other. Much of this workhas also been extendedby Alain Connesto "non-commutative differential geometry". enough,very recently,Wittenin workingon stringtheory(the latest Interestingly ways in which K-theory physics)has identifiedvery interesting ideas in fundamental Whereas homefor whatarecalled"conserved quantities". to providea natural appears for them,it was the natural framework in the pastit was thoughtthathomologytheory a better answer. K-theory provides now seemsthat Lie Groups. Anotherunifying concept that is not just a techniqueis that of Lie unitary, the orthogonal, groups.Now Lie groups,by which we mean fundamentally and symplecticgroups,togetherwith some exceptionalgroups,have played a very mathematics. Again, they date from important part in the history of 20th-century and he, Norwegianmathematician, the 19thcentury.SophusLie was a 19th-century Felix Klein, and otherspushed"thetheoryof continuousgroups",as it was called. Originally, for Klein, this was a way of tryingto unify the differentkinds of geomAlthoughthis subjectstarted geometry. etry:Euclideangeometryandnon-Euclidean in the 19thcentury, it reallytook off in the 20th century.The 20th centuryhas been in by the theoryof Lie groupsas a sortof unifyingframework veryheavilydominated whichto studymanydifferent questions. I did mentionthe role in geometryof the ideas of Klein. For Klein, geometries were spaces that were homogeneous,where you could move things aroundwithout by an associatedisometrygroup.The Eudistortion,and so they were determined clideangroupgave you Euclidean hyperbolic geometrycamefromanother geometry; to a differentLie group. Lie group.So each homogeneousgeometrycorresponded But lateron, followingup on Riemann'swork on geometry,people were more convariedfrom wherethe curvature cernedwith geometriesthatwere not homogeneous, Lie groups of space.Nevertheless, placeto placeandtherewereno globalsymmetries role because they come in at the infinitesimal level, since still played an important in the tangentspace, in the tangentspacewe have Euclideancoordinates. Therefore, but becauseyou have to comparedifferLie grouptheoryreappears, infinitesimally, in some way to handle ent pointsin different places,you haveto move thingsaround the basis of the differentLie groups.Thatwas the theorydevelopedby Elie Cartan, thatwas essentialto Einandit was also the framework moderndifferential geometry, Einstein'stheory,of course,gave a big boost to the whole stein'stheoryof relativity. of differential geometry. development 2001] August-September
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before,inthe global aspect,which I mentioned Movingon into the 20th century, geometryat the globallevel. A majordevelopment, volvedLie groupsanddifferential gave information aboutwhat are by the workof Borel andHirzebruch, characterized combiningthe three classes".These are topologicalinvariants called "characteristic geometryand the topology,and of course, key parts:the Lie groups,the differential the algebra associated with the groupitself. harIn a more analyticaldirection,we get what is now called non-commutative of Fouriertheory,wherethe Fourierseries monic analysis.This is the generalization Lie groupsof the circle essentiallyto the commutative or Fourier integrals correspond Lie groups,then line. Whenyou replacethese by more complicated andthe straight theoryof Lie theorythatcombinesrepresentation we get a very beautiful,elaborate groupsandanalysis.This was essentiallythe lifeworkof Harish-Chandra. as it is called, which is closely program", In number theorythe whole "Langlands theory,takesplace withinthe theoryof Lie groups. relatedalso to Harish-Chandra's proFor everyLie group,you have the associatednumbertheoryand the Langlands gram,whichhas been carriedout to some extent.It has influenceda largepartof the The studyof modnumber workin algebraic theoryin the secondhalf of this century. ularformsfits into this partof the story,includingAndrewWiles' workon Fermat's LastTheorem. significantonly in geometrical One might think that Lie groupsare particularly of Lie groups butthe analogues variation, contexts,becauseof the needfor continuous overfinitefields give finitegroups,andmost finitegroupsarisein thatway.Therefore for finite of some partsof Lie theoryapplyeven in a discretesituation the techniques for example,work fieldsor for local fields.Thereis a lot of workthatis purealgebra; theoryof such with which GeorgeLusztig'snameis associated,whererepresentation before thatI havementioned finitegroupsis studiedandwheremanyof the techniques havetheircounterparts. 7. FINITE GROUPS. This bringsus to finitegroups,andthatremindsme: the classificationof finite simple groupsis somethingwhere I have to make an admission. when the finitesimplegroupstorywas just about Some yearsago I was interviewed, I finished,and was askedwhatI thoughtaboutit. I was rashenoughto say I did not of finitesimplegroups thinkit was so important. My reasonwas thatthe classification there was a list of a few told us thatmost simplegroupswere the ones we knew,and exceptions.In some sense thatclosed the field,it did not openthingsup. Whenthings get closed downinsteadof gettingopenedup, I do not get so excited,but of coursea lot of my friendswho workin this areawere very,very cross. I had to weara sortof vest afterthat! bulletproof Thereis one savinggrace.I did actuallymakethe point thatin the list of the soI thinkthe the biggestwas giventhe nameof the "Monster". called"sporadic groups", It turns of the classification. aloneis the mostexcitingoutput discoveryof thisMonster understood and it is still animal being out thatthe Monsteris an extremelyinteresting with withlargepartsof otherpartsof mathematics, now.It hasunexpected connections and field with theoretical theory. quantum physics functions,andeven ellipticmodular of the classification. Classifications by themselves, This was an interesting by-product as I say,close the door;butthe Monsteropenedup a door. theme,whichis the 8. IMPACTOF PHYSICS. Let me move on now to a different withmathephysicshas hada long association history, impactof physics.Throughout in order calculus,for example,weredeveloped matics,andlargepartsof mathematics, to solve problemsin physics.In the middleof the 20th centurythis perhapshad be662
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verywell independently progressing comeless evident,withmostof puremathematics Let thingshavechangeddramatically. of thiscentury of physics,butin the last quarter andin particular of physicswith mathematics, me try to reviewbrieflythe interaction with geometry. what is In the 19th century,Hamiltondevelopedclassicalmechanics,introducing Classicalmechanicshas led to what we call formalism. now called the Hamiltonian of geometrythatcouldhavebeen studiedmuch It is a branch geometry". "symplectic earlier,but in fact has not been studiedseriouslyuntil the last two decades.It turns in the sense I am using the word out to be a very rich partof geometry.Geometry, geometry,complex geometry,and symplectic Riemannian here, has threebranches: to the threetypes of Lie groups.Symplecticgeometryis the corresponding geometry, one andcertainly mostrecentof these andin someways possiblythe mostinteresting, with extremelyclose relationsto physics,becauseof its historicaloriginsin connecmechanics.Now, mechanicsand morerecentlywith quantum tion with Hamiltonian linearequationsof before,the fundamental Maxwell'sequations,whichI mentioned for Hodge'sworkon harmonic forms,andthe were the motivation electromagnetism, fruitfultheory, This turned out to be an enormously to algebraic geometry. application whichhas underpinned muchof the workin geometrysince the 1930s. mechanandEinstein'swork.Quantum I have alreadymentioned generalrelativity but relations, the commutation input.Not only in an enormous ics, of course,provided theory. spectral space and on Hilbert in the emphasis moresignificantly in its classicalformwas conIn a moreconcreteandobviousway,crystallography The finite groupsthatcan symmetry of crystalstructures. cernedwith the symmetries of their applications because takeplace around pointswere studiedin the firstinstance haveturned of theory group In this century, the deeperapplications to crystallography. which is supposed of matter to The elementary particles out to haverelations physics. at the very smallestlevel, wherethere to be built appearto have hiddensymmetries of these thatyou cannotsee, but the symmetries are some Lie groupslurkingaround of the particles.So you postulate becomemanifestwhenyou studythe actualbehavior a model in which symmetryis an essentialingredientand the differenttheoriesthat have certainbasic Lie groupssuch as SU(2) and SU(3) builtinto are now prevalent them as primordial symmetrygroups.So these Lie groupsappearas buildingblocks of matter. Lie Nor are compactLie groupsthe only ones that appear.Certainnon-compact in physics.It was physicistswho firststarted groups,suchas theLorentzgroup,appear Lie groups.These arerepresenthe studyof the representation theoryof non-compact tationsthathaveto takeplace in Hilbertspacebecause,for compactgroups,the irreinfinite butnon-compact groupsrequire duciblerepresentations arefinitedimensional, andit was physicistswho firstrealizedthis. dimensions, In the last quarter of the 20th century,the one we havejust been finishing,there This is incursionof new ideas fromphysicsinto mathematics. has been a tremendous of It the whole of the most remarkable stories perhaps requires one century. perhaps field theoryand stringtheoryhave a whole lectureon its own but,basically,quantum in manyparts in remarkable beenapplied waysto get newresults,ideas,andtechniques thatcertain of mathematics. By thisI meanthatthe physicistshavebeen ableto predict of the physicaltheory. basedon theirunderstanding thingswill be truein mathematics Of course,thatis not a rigorousproof,but it is backedby a very powerfulamountof by the physicistshave intuition,specialcases, and analogies.These resultspredicted and found to be fundamentally time and againbeen checkedby the mathematicians correct,even thoughit is quitehardto produceproofsandmanyof themhavenot yet been fully proved. 2001] August-September
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So therehas been a tremendous inputoverthe last 25 yearsin this direction.The resultsareextremelydetailed.It is notjust thatthe physicistssaid, "thisis the sortof thingthatshouldbe true." They said,"here is the preciseformulaandherearethe first ten cases"(involvingnumbers withmorethan12 digits).Theygive you exactanswers to complicated problems, not the kindof thingyou can guess;thingsyou need to have machinery to calculate.Quantum fieldtheoryhas provided a remarkable tool, whichis verydifficultto understand mathematically buthas had an unexpected bonusin terms of applications. This has reallybeen the excitingstoryof the last 25 years. Herearesome of the ingredients: SimonDonaldson's workon 4-dimensional manifolds; Vaughan Jones' work on knot invariants; mirrorsymmetry, quantum groups; andI mentioned the Monster just for good measure. Whatis this subjectall about?As I mentioned before,the 20th centurysaw a shift in the number of dimensionsendingup with an infinitenumber. Physicistshave gone beyondthat.In quantum fieldtheorytheyarereallytryingto makea verydetailedstudy of infinite-dimensional spacein depth.The infinite-dimensional spacesthey deal with are typicallyfunctionspaces of variouskinds. They are very complicated,not only becausetheyareinfinite-dimensional, buttheyhavecomplicated algebra andgeometry andtopologyas well, andtherearelargeLie groupsaround, infinite-dimensional Lie groups.So, just as largepartsof 20th-century mathematics were concernedwith the of geometry,topology,algebra,and analysison finite-dimensional development Lie groupsandmanifolds,this partof physicsis concerned with the analogoustreatments in infinitedimensions,andof courseit is a vastlydifferentstory,but it has enormous payoffs. Let me explainthis in a bit moredetail.Quantum field theoriestakeplace in space and time; and space is really meantto be three-dimensional but thereare simplified modelswhereyou takeone dimension. In one-dimensional spaceandone-dimensional time, typicallythe things that physicistsmeet are, mathematically speaking,groups suchas the diffeomorphisms of the circleor the groupof differentiable mapsfromthe circleinto a compactLie group.Thesearetwo veryfundamental examplesof infinitedimensional Lie groupsthatturnup in quantum fieldtheoriesin thesedimensions, and they are quitereasonable mathematical objectsthathavebeen studiedby mathematiciansfor sometime. In such1 + 1 dimensional theoriesone cantakespace-time to be a Riemann surface, andthis leadsto new results.Forexample,the modulispaceof Riemannsurfacesof a given genusis a classicalobjectgoing back to the last century. Quantum field theory has led to new resultsaboutthe cohomologyof these modulispaces.Another, rather similar,moduli space is the moduli space of flat G-bundlesover a Riemannsurface of genus g. These spacesare very interesting, andquantum field theorygives precise resultsaboutthem.In particular, therearebeautifulformulasfor the volumes,which involvevaluesof zeta functions. Anotherapplication is concernedwith countingcurves.If you look at plane algebraiccurvesof a given degreeof a given type, and you wantto know how many of so manypoints,you get into enumerative them,for example,pass through of problems algebraic thatwouldhavebeen classicalin the last century. geometry, problems These areveryhard.Theyhavebeen solvedby modern cohomolcalled"quantum machinery ogy",whichis all partof the storycomingfromquantum field theory,or you can look at more difficultquestionsaboutcurvesnot in the plane,but curveslying on curved varieties.One gets another beautifulstorywith explicitresultsgoing by the nameof mirror All this comes fromquantum symmetry. fieldtheoryin 1 + 1 dimensions.

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If we move up one dimension,where we have 2-space and 1-time,this is where Jones'theoryof invariants Vaughan of knotscomes in. This has hadan elegantexplanationor interpretation in quantum-field-theory terms. Also comingout of this is whatarecalled "quantum groups". Now the nicestthing aboutquantum groupsis theirname.They are definitelynot groups!If you were to ask me for the definitionof a quantum group,I would need another half hour.They are complicatedobjects,but thereis no questionthat they have a deep relationship with quantum theory.They emergedout of the physics,andthey arebeing appliedby hard-nosed algebraists who actuallyuse themfor definitecomputations. If we move up one step further, to fully four-dimensional theory(three-plus-one dimension),that is whereDonaldson'stheoryof four-dimensional manifoldsfits in and wherequantum field theoryhas had a majorimpact.In particular, it led Seiberg andWittento produce theiralternative whichis basedon physicalintuition theory, and gives marvellous resultsmathematically as well. All of these areparticular examples. Therearemanymore. Thenthereis stringtheoryandthis is alreadypasse! M-theoryis whatwe should talk aboutnow, and thatis a rich theory,againwith a largenumberof mathematical aspectsto it. Resultscomingout of it arestill being digestedandwill keepmathematiciansbusyfor a long time to come. 9. HISTORICALSUMMARY. Let me just try to make a quick summary. Let me look at the historyin a nutshell:what has happenedto mathematics? I will rather gliblyjust put the 18thand 19thcenturiestogether,as the era of whatyou mightcall classicalmathematics, the era we associatewith EulerandGauss,whereall the great classical mathematics was workedout and developed.You might have thoughtthat would almostbe the end of mathematics, but the 20th centuryhas, on the contrary, been veryproductive indeedandthis is whatI havebeen talkingabout. The 20th centurycan be dividedroughlyinto two halves. I would thinkthe first half has been dominated the era in which by what I call the "eraof specialization", of tryingto formalizethings and definethem carefullyand then Hilbert'sapproach, follow through on whatyou can do in eachfield,was veryinfluential. As I said,Bourbaki'snameis associatedwith this trend,wherepeoplefocusedattention on whatyou couldget withinparticular or othersystemsat a giventime.The secondhalf algebraic of the 20th centuryhas been much more what I would call the "eraof unification", wherebordersarecrossed,techniques havebeen movedfromone field into the other, andthingshavebecomehybridized to an enormous extent.I thinkthis is an oversimplification, butI thinkit does brieflysummarize some of the aspectsthatyou can see in 20th-century mathematics. Whataboutthe 21st century? I havesaidthe 21st centurymightbe the eraof quantummathematics Whatcouldthis mathematics. or,if you like, of infinite-dimensional mean?Quantum mathematics could mean,if we get thatfar,understanding properly the analysis,geometry,topology,algebraof variousnon-linear functionspaces, and I mean understanding it in such a way as to get quite by "understanding properly" about. rigorous proofsof all the beautifulthingsthe physicistshavebeen speculating One shouldsay that,if you go at infinitedimensionsin a naive way and ask naive questions,you usually get the wrong answers,or the answersare dull. Physicalaphave enabledphysiciststo ask intelligentquestions plication,insight,andmotivation aboutinfinitedimensions andto do verysubtlethingswheresensibleanswersdo come out,andtherefore doinginfinite-dimensional analysisin thisway is by no meansa simple task. Youhave to go aboutit in the rightway. We have a lot of clues. The mapis laid out:this is whatshouldbe done,butit is long way to go yet. August-September 2001]
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Whatelse might happenin the 21st century?I would like to emphasizeConnes' uniAlain Conneshas this rather magnificent non-commutative differential geometry. It combinesanalysis,algebra,geometry, fied theory.Again it combineseverything. to partsof it. It is a topology,physics, and numbertheory,all of which contribute geometersnormallydo, including framework thatenablesus to do what differential analysis.Thereare its relationship with topology,in the contextof non-commutative (potentialor otherwise)in number good reasonsfor wantingto do this, applications link with theory,geometry, discretegroups,and so on, andin physics.An interesting physics is just being workedout. How far this will go, whatit will achieve,remains to be seen.It certainly is something thatI expectwill be significantly developedin the andit is possibleit couldhave a link with the firstdecadeat least of the next century, fieldtheory. as-yet-undeveloped (rigorous) quantum geometry"or Moving in anotherdirection,there is what is called "arithmetic which tries to unify as muchas possible algebraicgeometryand Arakelovgeometry, partsof number theory.It is a very successfultheory.It has madea nice startbuthas a long way to go. Who knows? in common.I expectphysicsto haveits impact Of course,all of these have strands even to number theory:AndrewWiles disagreesandonly spreadall the way through, time will tell. Thesearethe strands thatI can see emergingoverthe next decade,butthereis what I call a joker in the pack:going down to lower-dimensional geometry.Alongsideall the infinite-dimensional geometryis an embarrassment. fancy stuff,low-dimensional In manyways the dimensionswherewe started, whereour ancestorsstarted, remain of an enigma.Dimensions2, 3, and4 arewhatwe call "low".Forexample, something in three-dimensional the work of Thurston geometryaims at a classificationof gemanifolds.This is much deeperthanthe ometriesone can put on three-dimensional is by no means completedyet, and two-dimensional program theory.The Thurston thatprogram completing certainlyshouldbe a majorchallenge. Joneswith The otherremarkable storyin threedimensionsis the workof Vaughan aboutthree ideas essentiallycoming from physics. This gives us more information to the information containedin the Thurston dimensions,whichis almostorthogonal How to link thosetwo sides of the storytogether remainsan enormous chalprogram. lenge, but thereare recenthints of a possiblebridge.So this whole area,still in low indeed. has its links to physics,butit remainsverymysterious dimensions, are Finally,I shouldlike to mentionthatin physicswhatemergesveryprominently "dualities". These dualities,broadlyspeaking,arisewhen a quantum theoryhas two A simpleexampleis the dualitybetweenpodifferent realizations as a classicaltheory. in classicalmechanics.This replacesa spaceby its dual space, sitionandmomentum But in non-linear theotransform. andin lineartheoriesthatdualityis just the Fourier is one of the big challenges.Largepartsof transform ries, how you replacea Fourier situations. mathematics are concernedwith how to generalizedualitiesin non-linear way in theirstringtheoriesandin Physicistsseem to be able to do so in a remarkable M-theory.They produceexampleafterexampleof marvellousdualitiesthatin some transforms andthey non-linear versionsof Fourier broadsenseareinfinite-dimensional thosenon-linear dualitiesdoes seemto be one of the seem to work.But understanding big challengesof the next centuryas well. I thinkI will stopthere.Thereis plentyof work,andit is very nice for an old man like me to talkto a lot of youngpeoplelike you;to be ableto say to you:thereis plenty of workfor you in the next century!
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Edinburgh,James Clerk Maxwell Building, King's Buildings, MayfieldRoad, EdinburghEH9 3JZ, England @ed.ac. uk Michael.Atiyah

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