A Timeline of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics

-1500

Babylonians establish the metric of flat 2-dimensional space by observation, in their efforts to keep track of land for legal and economic purposes. Pythagoras, a Greek educated by mystics in Egypt and Babylon, founds community of men and women calling themselves mathematikoi, in southern taly. !hey believe that reality is in essence mathematical. Pythagoras noted that vibrating lyre strings with harmonious notes have lengths that are proportional by a whole number. !he Pythagorean theorem proves by reasoning what the Babylonians figured out by measurement "### years earlier. Plato, after traveling to taly and learning about the Pythagoreans, founds his $cademy in $thens, and continues to develop the idea that reality must be e%pressible in mathematical terms. But $thens at that time has developed a notoriously misogynist culture. &nlike his role model Pythagoras, whose school developed many women mathematikoi, Plato does not allow women to participate. Euclid of $le%andria, a gifted teacher, produces Elements, one of the top mathematics te%tbooks of recorded history, which organi'es the e%isting (editerranean understanding of geometry into a coherent logical framework. onian mathematician $pollonius writes Conics, and introduces the terms ellipse, parabola and hyperbola to describe conic sections. )icaean mathematician and astronomer *ipparchus develops what will be known as trigonometry. The Almagest by $le%andrian astronomer and mathematician +laudius Ptolemy asserts that the ,un and planets orbit around the Earth in perfect circles. Ptolemy-s work is so influential that will become official church doctrine when the +hristians later come to rule Europe. $s a glorious 2### years of ancient (editerranean mathematics and science comes to a close, *ypatia of $le%andria, a renowned teacher, mathematician, astronomer, and priestess of sis, is kidnapped from a public religious procession and brutally murdered by a mob of angry +hristian monks. *indu mathematician-astronomer Brahmagupta writes Brahma- sphuta- siddhanta .!he /pening of the &niverse0. *indu mathematicians develop numerals and start investigating number theory. !he spread of slam leads to the spread of written $rabic language. $s ancient Greek and *indu works are translated into $rabic, a culture of mathematics and astronomy develops. !he peak of this cultural flowering is represented by $rabic mathematician $l-1hwori'mi, working at the *ouse of 2isdom in Baghdad, who develops what will be known as algebra in his work Hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala. ranian poet, mathematician and astronomer /mar 1hayyam begins his Treatise on emonstration o! "roblems o! Algebra, classifying cubic e3uations that could be solved by conic sections. 1hayyam was such a brilliant poet that history has nearly forgotten that he was also a brilliant scientist and mathematician. The mo#ing !inger writes$$$

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$delard of Bath translates works of Euclid and $l-1hwori'mi into 4atin and introduces them to European scholars. Euclid-s Elements is published using the revolutionary new technology of the printing press, leading to a revolution in education and scholarship as information becomes more difficult for authorities to control. +opernicus publishes e re#olutionibus orbium coelestium ./n the revolutions of the heavenly spheres0 asserting that the Earth and planets revolve about the ,un. !he +atholic +hurch has accorded an official holy status to Ptolemy-s geocentric &niverse. +opernicus avoids prosecution as a heretic by waiting until the end of his own life to publish his controversial claims. Pisa &niversity mathematics instructor Galileo Galilei studies the motion of ob5ects and begins a book e %otu ./n (otion0 which he never finishes. Galileo observes that the period of a swinging pendulum is independent of the amplitude of the swing. 6ohannes 1epler claims in the 5ournal Astronomia &o#a that the orbit of (ars is an ellipse with the ,un at one focus, and sweeps out e3ual areas in e3ual time. *e will later generali'e these into his famous !hree 4aws of Planetary (otion. Galileo makes his first telescope. *is observations of the moon show that it looks like a very large lumpy rock, not a divinely smooth and perfect shining Platonic heavenly orb. !his discovery has enormously distressing cultural reverberations for 2estern culture and religion. ,cottish theologian 6ohn )apier, who does mathematics as a hobby, publishes his discovery of the logarithm in his work %iri!ici logarithmorum canonis descriptio$ 1epler-s mother, 7rau 1atharina 1epler, is accused of witchcraft by a local prostitute. European witch hunting was at its peak during 1epler-s career, and witch hunting was supported by all levels of society, including secular officials and intellectuals in universities. 1epler spends the ne%t several years making legal appeals and hiding his mother from legal authorities seeking to torture her into confessing to witchcraft. E%amining an accused witch ad torturam was a standard court procedure during this era. &nder court order, 1epler-s mother is kidnapped in the middle of the night from her daughter-s home and taken to prison. 1epler spends the ne%t year appealing to the duke of 28rttemberg to prevent his imprisoned mother from being e%amined ad torturam. /n ,eptember 29, 1atharina 1epler is taken from her prison cell into the torture room, shown the instruments of torture and ordered to confess. ,he replies "Do with me what you want. Even if you were to pu one vein after another out of my !o"y# $ wou " have nothin% to a"mit#" and says the 4ord-s Prayer. ,he is taken back to prison. ,he is freed on /ctober : upon order of the duke, who rules that her refusal to confess under threat of torture proves her innocence. *e also orders her accusers to pay the cost of her trial and imprisonment. $fter having spent most of the last seven years under the legal threat of imminent torture, 1atharina 1epler dies on $pril ";, still being threatened with violence from those who insist she is a witch. Pope &rban < promises Galileo that he is allowed write about +opernican heliocentrism if he treats it as an abstract proposition.

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1epler uses )apier-s logarithms to compute a set of astronomical tables, the 'udolphine Tables, whose accuracy is so impressive that it leads to the 3uiet acceptance of the heliocentric solar system by everyone in the shipping industry. Bas3ue mathematician Pierre de 7ermat, the founder of modern number theory, begins his brilliant career by reconstructing the work of $pollonius on conic sections . 7ermat and =escartes pioneer the application of algebraic methods to solving problems in geometry. Galileo publishes ialogue concerning the two greatest world s(stems, which argues convincingly for the +opernican view that the Earth and planets revolve around the ,un. !he n3uisition calls Galieo to >ome to answer charges of heresy against the +atholic +hurch. =escartes publishes his revolutionary iscours de la m)thode .=iscourse on (ethod0 containing three essays on the use of reason to search for the truth. n the third essay =escartes describes analytic geometry, and uses the letters .%,y,'0 for the coordinate system that will later bear his name. Galileo dies at his villa in 7lorence, still under house arrest from charges of heresy. +ambridge mathematician saac Barrow delivers lectures on modern methods of computing tangents that inspire his student saac )ewton towards developing calculus )ewton-s ?miraculous years? in math and physics, when he discovers the derivative, which he sees as a ratio of velocities called !lu*ions, and the integral, which he sees as a !luent of the !lu*ions. )ewton shows that the fluent and flu%ion are inversely related, a result now called the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. )ewton also develops his ideas on optics and gravitation. *e tries to publish his work in "@A", but the publisher goes bankrupt. 6acob Bernoulli, who studied mathematics and astronomy against the wishes of his careerminded parents, teaches )ewtonian mechanics at the &niversity of Basel, and turns mathematical physics into a family business. 4eibni' publishes the beginning of his work on differential and integral calculus. *e discovers the 7undamental !heorem of +alculus in his own way. 4eibni' originates most of the current calculus notation including the integral sign. *e portrays an integral as a sum of infinitesimals, a concept re5ected by )ewton. )ewton publishes "rincipia %echanica after Edmund *alley convinces )ewton to write up his alleged proof that an inverse s3uare force law leads to elliptical orbits. )ewton-s 4aws of (otion and 4aw of Gravitation lead to the development of theoretical physics itself. !his event marks a permanent change in the relationship between human beings and the &niverse. )ewton has a nervous breakdown after his close companion 7atio =e =uillier becomes ill and has to return to ,wit'erland. Brachistochrone problem solved by 6acob and 6ohann Bernoulli, an early result in the calculus of variations. !hanks to a campaign waged by )ewton, a commission appointed by >oyal ,ociety of 4ondon President saac )ewton rules that 4eibni' is guilty of plagiarism against )ewton in the discovery of calculus. English mathematics and theoretical physics go into decline because those loyal to )ewton are hesitant to adopt 4eibni'- infinitesimal and his clean,

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intuitively appealing notation. 1736 1738 1748 4eonhard Euler begins the field of topology when he publishes his solution of the 1onigsberg Bridge problem. H(drod(namics by =aniel Bernoulli !he multitalented Euler begins the fields of mathematical analysis and analytical mechanics with +ntroductio in anal(sin in!initorum. Euler introduces the formula ei* B cos % C i sin % 6oseph-4ouis 4agrange finds the complete general solution to the )ewtonian e3uations of motion for a vibrating string, which e%plains the harmonic relations observed by Pythagoras 22 centuries ago. *yperbolic trigonometry -- cosh, sinh -- is developed. *enry +avendish, a wealthy but paranoid recluse, discovers that the electrostatic force is described by an inverse s3uare law similar to gravity, but doesn-t tell anyone in the science community. 4agrange further develops the analytical mechanics of Euler when he publishes %)canique Anal(tique, revealing )ewtonian mechanics to be a rich field of e%ploration for mathematicians. $ristocrat +harles-$ugustin de +oulomb, hiding from the 7rench >evolution after the storming of the Bastille, shows that the electrostatic force between electric charges was very well described by an inverse s3uare law, in full analogy with )ewtonian gravity. !his becomes known as +oulomb-s 4aw, even though *enry +avendish was the first one to demonstrate it. 4agrange is arrested during the >eign of !error, but is rescued by $ntoine-4aurent 4avoisier, the founder of modern chemistry. &nfortunately, 4avoisier-s career in chemistry is ended when he is taken to meet (adame Guillotine on (ay 9, "AD:. Pierre-,imon 4aplace publishes his work Trait) du %)canique C)leste .!reatise on +elestial (echanics0 using differential e3uations to solve problems in planetary motion and fluid flow.

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$fter serving as a member of the >evolutionary +ommittee that terrori'ed 7rance, sent +oulomb into hiding, arrested 4agrange and guillotined 4avoisier, a repentant 6ean Baptiste 6oseph 7ourier causes controversy with his memoir ,n the "ropagation o! Heat in -olid Bodies. *is former teachers 4aplace and 4agrange ob5ect to his use of infinite trigonometric series, which we now call 7ourier series. 7ourier later wins the Paris nstitute (athematics Pri'e for solving the problem of heat propagation, over the repeated ob5ections of 4aplace and 4agrange. 6ohann 1arl 7riedrich Gauss begins working on non-Euclidean geometry, and lays the foundations of differential geometry, but doesn-t publish because he is afraid of the controversy that would result. =anish physicist *ans +hristian /ersted studied the way an electric current in a wire could move the magnetic needle of a compass, which strongly suggested that electricity and magnetism were related somehow.

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!ransylvanian mathematician 6Enos Bolyai, despite being warned against it by his father, tosses out Euclid-s 7ifth $%iom and shows that non-Euclidean geometry is possible. Gauss calls him a genius of the first order, but then crushes the young man by telling him he discovered it years ago but failed to publish due to his own fear of controversy. Elliptic functions are developed by Gauss, 6acobi and $bel. n his book %emoir on the %athematical Theor( o! Electrod(namic "henomena, .niquel( educed !rom E*perience. $ndrF (arie $mpGre gave a mathematical derivation of the magnetic force between two parallel wires with electric current, what we now call $mpGre-s 4aw. /hm-s 4aw of electrical resistance is published in his book mathematisch bearbeitet$ ie gal#anische /ette,

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$ugustin-4ouis +auchy develops the calculus of residues, beginning his work in mathematics that made comple% analysis one of the most important analytical tools of modern theoretical physics, including string theory. ,elf-educated English mill worker George Green publishes his work on the use of potential theory to solve partial differential e3uations, and develops one of the most powerful mathematical technologies in theoretical physics -- the &reen fun'tion. >ussian mathematician )ikolai vanovich 4obachevsky publishes his independent discovery of non-Euclidean geometry in the /a0an %essenger. Hears later, one of his physics students will become known to history as 4enin-s father. Evariste Galois develops the nascent group theory with his work on the permutation group. (ichael 7araday discovers magnetic induction, now known as 7araday-s 4aw, where moving magnetism creates electricity, and this result increases support for the idea of a unified theory of electricity and magnetism. 7rench mathematician 6oseph 4iouville begins to work on boundary value problems in partial differential e3uations, leading to ,turm-4iouville theory. *e then develops the study of conformal transformations, and later proves the 4iouville !heorem regarding the invariance of the measure of phase space under what will later be called *amiltonian flow. 2illiam >owan *amilton applies his mathematical development of characteristic functions in optics to mechanics and the enormous and potent mathematical technology of *amiltonian dynamics is born. 1arl 2eierstrass begins his work on elliptic functions. $fter a period of emotional distress and alcohol abuse, *amilton finally deduces the noncommutative multiplication rule for 3uaternions. *is first publication on the sub5ect is to carve the 3uaternion formula into a bridge. *ermann Grassmann develops e%terior algebra and the Grassmannian. Bernhard >iemann submits his Ph.=. thesis to his supervisor Gauss. n his thesis he describes what is now called a >iemann surface, an essential element in understanding string theory.

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George Boole develops Boolean logic in 1aws o! Thought$ )orwegian mathematician (arius ,ophus 4ie publishes work on 4ie algebras, opening up the field of differential topology and paving the way for gauge field theory "## years later. 6ames +lerk (a%well publishes a set of e3uations from which all of the observed laws of electromagnetism could be derived through mathematics. !hese e3uations turn out to have solutions that describe waves traveling through space with a speed that agrees with the measured speed of light. (a%well makes the bold conclusion that light therefore must consist of electromagnetic waves, writing that he could "('ar'e y avoi" the inferen'e that i%ht 'on(i(t( in the tran(ver(e un"u ation( of the (ame me"ium whi'h i( the 'au(e of e e'tri' an" ma%neti' phenomena." +antor invents set theory. 2illiam +lifford develops +lifford algebras from the work of Grassmann and *amilton. $rthur +ayley writes The theor( o! groups, where he proved that every finite group can be represented as a group of permutations. 2ilhelm 1illing works on n-dimensional non-Euclidean geometry and 4ie algebras, work that later results in the concept of a 1illing vector, a powerful tool in differential geometry, 3uantum gauge field theory, supergravity and and string theory. *einrich *ert' rewrites )a*we +( E,uation( in a more elegant notation where the symmetry between electricity and magnetism was obvious. *ert' then creats the first radio waves and microwaves in his laboratory and shows that these electromagnetic waves behaved 5ust as observable optical light behaved, proving that i%ht wa( e e'troma%neti' ra"iation, as (a%well had predicted. 4udwig Bolt'mann makes a theoretical derivation of black body radiation using (a%well-s e3uations and thermodynamics, confirming the "9AD result measured e%perimentally by 6osef ,tefan. !heir result, the ,tefan-Bolt'mann 4aw, is not 3uite right, and the correct solution in the ne%t century will mark the beginning of 3uantum theory. (ichelson and (orley measure the Earth-s velocity through the ether to be 'ero, strongly suggesting that there is no ether, and that the velocity of light is the same for all observers, a result whose full implications have changed the world forever. Elie +artan classifies simple 4ie algebras *enri PoincarF publishes Anal(sis -itus, and gives birth to the field of algebraic topology. Electron discovered by 6.6. !hompson. *endrik 4orent' becomes the third person, after <oigt and 7it'Gerald, to write down the relativistic coordinate transformations that will bear his name. !he 4orent' transformations leave the speed of light invariant, as suggested by the (ichelson(orley e%periment. =avid *ilbert-s 2rundlagen der 2eometrie .7oundations of Geometry0 is published, putting modern geometry on a solid rigorous foundation.

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(a% Planck makes his quantum h(pothesis -- that energy is carried by indistinguishable units called quanta, rather than flowing in a pure continuum. !his hypothesis leads to a successful derivation of the black body radiation law, now called Planck-s 4aw, although in "D#" the 3uantum hypothesis as yet had no e%perimental support. !he unit of 3uantum action is now called Planck-s constant. ,wiss patent clerk $lbert Einstein proposes Planck-s 3uantum hypothesis as the physics underlying the photoelectric effect. Planck wins the )obel Pri'e in "D"9, and Einstein in "D2", for developing 3uantum theory, one of the two most important developments in 2#th century physics. Einstein publishes his simple, elegant ,pecial !heory of >elativity, making mincemeat of his competition by relying on only two ideasI ". !he laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames, and 2. !he speed of light is the same for all inertial observers. PoincarF shows that 4orent' transformations in space and time plus rotations in space form a group, which comes to be known as the 4orent' group. !he 4orent' group plus translations in space form a group called the PoincarF group. (inkowski publishes >aum und Jeit .,pace and !ime0, and establishes the idea of a spacetime continuum *ilbert-s work on integral e3uations later leads to the concept of a -i !ert (pa'e in 3uantum mechanics Emmy )oether publishes .oether+( /heorem, discovering the relationship between symmetries and conserved currents that was crucial to the later development of 3uantum gauge field theory and string theory Einstein, with *ilbert in stiff competition, publishes his stunning General !heory of >elativity, and is lucky enough to be able to find observational support for his theory right away, in the perihelial advance of (ercury, and the deflection of starlight by the ,un. German astrophysicist 1arl ,chwar'schild, serving on the >ussian front in 22 , mails Einstein his paper on the ,chwar'schild metric and Einstein presents it at a meeting of the Prussian $cademy of ,ciences. ,i% months and another ma5or paper later, ,chwar'schild dies of illness on the front. !heodor 1alu'a follows Einstein-s advice and publishes his highly unorthodo% ideas about unifying gravity with electromagnetism by adding an e%tra dimension of space that is compactified into a small circle. 1alu'a-1lein compactification will become a rich sub5ect of e%ploration in particle theory @# years later. 2erner *eisenberg shows that his 3uanti'ed probability operators form a noncommutative algebra. Born and 6ordan point out to him that this is a matri% algebra, and the matri% formulation of 3uantum mechanics is born. *e gets the )obel Pri'e in "D;2. 4ouis duc de Broglie proposes the particle-wave duality of the electron in his doctoral thesis at the ,orbonne. *e gets the )obel Pri'e in "D2D. $fter learning of the work of de Broglie, Erwin ,chrKdinger develops his wave e3uation version of 3uantum mechanics, and unravels its relationship to the matri% formulation of 3uantum mechanics by *eisenberg. *e shares the )obel Pri'e with =irac in "D;;. Houng +ambridge math student Paul =irac discovers the operator algebra behind *eisenberg-s &ncertainty Principle for his doctoral thesis.

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*eisenberg discovers the &ncertainty Principle that bears his name. =irac introduces a relativistic 3uantum e3uation for the electron, an e3uation now known as the Dira' e,uation. *is e3uation predicts the discovery of the positron, and he shares the )obel Pri'e with ,chrodinger in "D;;. 2erner *eisenberg, *ermann 2eyl and Eugene 2igner begin an e%ploration of symmetry groups in 3uantum mechanics that has far-reaching conse3uences. Edwin *ubble, with the help of his mule driver *umason, observes the redshift of distant gala%ies and concludes that the &niverse is e%panding. Einstein stops using the cosmological constant to keep the &niverse from e%panding. =irac shows that the e%istence of magnetic monopoles would lead to electric charge 3uanti'ation. Georges =e >ham goes to work on his famous theorem in cohomology and characteristic classes, results that would become very important in string theory. Houng physicist ,ubramahnyan +handrasekhar is attacked by famous astronomer $rthur Eddington for his report that there is a stellar mass limit beyond which collapse to what we now call a black hole is inevitable. +handrasekhar wins the )obel Pri'e in "D9; for his work on stellar evolution. 2igner constructs a class of irreducible unitary representations of the 4orent' group Elements de %athematique, by )icholas Bourbaki, pseudonym for a group of young mathematicians at the Ecole )ormale in Paris, is begun. !his e%tended set of works aims to set down in writing what is no longer in doubt, but rather on a boring and rigorous footing, in modern mathematics. +hinese mathematician ,hiing-,hen +hern begins his work on characteristic classes and fiber bundles that will become an important tool for understanding 3uantum gauge theories and string theory. >ichard 7eynman, 6ulian ,chwinger and !omonaga ,hin-ichiro report that the divergent integrals that plague the 3uantum gauge field theory of electrodynamics .LE=0 can be sensibly dealt with through the process of renormali'ation. Based on particle scattering data, (urray Gell-(ann suggests that there is a new 3uantum number, called hypercharge, which we now call stangeness and recogni'e as a part of the 3uark model coming from the strange 3uark. Gell-(ann receives the )obel Pri'e in "D@D for his work on the 3uark model. Gell-(ann and 7rancis 4ow develop the idea that the physical content of a 3uantum theory should be invariant under a change of scale in the theory. !his is called renormali'ation group, and it turns out to constrain 3uantum field theories enough to make it a very powerful tool for analy'ing asymptotic behavior of 3uantum theories. +.). Hang and >. (ills develop non-$belian gauge invariance, an idea that takes "A years to gain acceptance, and then revolutioni'es particle physics. Eugenio +alabi con5ectures the e%istence of a 1Mhler manifold with a >icci-flat metric with a vanishing first +hern class, and a given comple% structure and 1Mhler class. !his funnysounding stuff will eventually become of ma5or importance in understanding superstring

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theory. 1964 +ambridge mathematician >oger Penrose proves that a black hole spacetime must contain behind the black hole event hori'on a singularity where spacetime physics ceases to make good sense. Gell-(ann and George Jweig independently propose fundamental particles that Gell-(ann succeeds in naming ?3uarks?. Peter *iggs, 7rancois Englert and >. Brout suggest a method of breaking 3uantum gauge symmetry that is later called the *iggs mechanism. n his paper A %odel o! 1eptons, ,teven 2einberg relies on 4ie group theory combined with 3uantum field theory to e%plain the weak nuclear and electromagnetic forces in a single theory, using the *iggs mechanism to give mass to the weak bosons. $dbus ,alam and ,heldon Glashow share the )obel Pri'e with 2einberg in "DAD for Electroweak !heory. ,idney +oleman and 6effrey (andula prove that well-behaved particle scattering theories can-t have symmetry algebras that relate particles of different spin. But the strict conse3uences of the +oleman-(andula !heorem were avoided by the supersymmetry algebras that were discovered a few years later. (ichael $tiyah and sadore ,inger begin their work on The +nde* o! Elliptic ,perators. !hey prove the $tiyah-,inger inde% theorem, a powerful mathematical result that will later be used e%tensively in theoretical physics. Gabriele <ene'iano begins modern string theory with his paper on the dual resonance model of the strong interactions. Hoichiro )ambu, 4eonard ,usskind, and *olger )ielsen independently discover that the dual resonance model devised by <ene'iano is based on the 3uantum mechanics of relativistic vibrating strings, and string theory begins. Gerard -t *ooft publishes his proof that the electroweak gauge theory of 2einberg is renormali'able and a new chapter in theoretical physics begins -- the age of 3uantum gauge field theory. Pierre >amond, $ndrF )eveu and 6ohn ,chwar' develop a string theory with fermions and bosons. Gervais and ,akita show that this theory obeys what turns out to be a supersymmetry algebra in two dimensions. 1en 2ilson publishes work using the renormali'ation group to understand the 3uantum behavior of systems undergoing phase transitions, this opens up the study of critical phenomena in particle physics and leads to greater understading of 3uark confinement. 2ilson wins the )obel Pri'e in "D9". ,oviet physicists Huri Gol-fand and E. 4ikhtman e%tend the PoincarF algebra into a superalgebra and discover supersymmetry in four spacetime dimensions. =avid Gross, =avid Polit'er, 7rank 2ilc'ek and Gerard -t *ooft arrive at the conclusion that the coupling constant in non-abelian 3uantum gauge theories vanishes at high energy. !his is called asymptotic freedom and is one of the ma5or results in the history of 3uantum gauge field theory. Luantum field theories with spacetime supersymmetry in four spacetime dimensions are

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discovered by 6ulius 2ess and Bruno Jumino. 1974 ,tephen *awking combines 3uantum field theory with classical general relativity and predicts that black holes radiate through particle emission, behave as thermodynamic ob5ects, and decay with a finite lifetime into ob5ects that we don-t yet understand. (agnetic monopole solutions of non-$belian gauge field theories are found separately by -t *ooft and (oscow physicist $le%ander Polyakov. 6oel ,cherk and 6ohn ,chwar' propose string theory as a theory of 3uantum gravity, an idea that takes ten years to be widely appreciated. *oward Georgi and ,heldon Glashow propose ,&.N0 for a ?Grand &nified !heory? .G&!0 of all forces e%cept gravity, the theory predicts that protons could decay. nstanton solutions of Hang-(ills e3uations are discovered by Belavin, Polyakov, $. ,chwar' and !yupkin. !his is e%citing because instantons can tell us about nonperturbative physics that is not approachable by other means of calculation. ,hing-!ung Hau proves the +alabi con5ecture and discovers the +alabi-Hau space, an important development for later progress in string theory. $lan Guth puts forward the idea of an inflationary phase of the early &niverse, before the Big Bang. (ichael Green and 6ohn ,chwar' develop superstring theory. $fter ,choen and Hau do it in a more traditional manner, Ed 2itten uses supersymmetry to prove the positive mass con5ecture. (athematician 1aren &hlenbeck shows that Hang-(ills instantons discovered by physicists can be used as a powerful analytical tool in abstract mathematics. 2itten and 4uis $lvare'-GaumF derive general formulas for gauge and gravitational anomalies in 3uantum field theories in any dimension. !hey show that the gravitational anomalies cancel in type B superstring theory. (athematics graduate student ,imon =onaldson discovers e%otic :-manifolds, using instanton techni3ues learned in part from &hlenbeck. (ichael Green and 6ohn ,chwar' show that superstring theory is free from 3uantum anomalies if the spacetime dimension is "# and the 3uantum gauge symmetry is ,/.;20 or E9 times E9. Gross, *arvey, (artinec and >ohm find another class of anomaly-free superstring theories, and call it the heterotic string theory. +andelas, ,trominger, *orowit' and 2itten propose the use of +alabi-Hau spaces for the e%tra dimensions in heterotic string theory. +onnes and 4ott develop non-commutative geometry, which will find its way into the heart of string theorists at the turn of the millennium. n search of an understanding of black hole entropy, -t *ooft suggests the idea that the information in a ;C"-dimensional system cannot be greater than what is need to store it as an image in 2C" dimensions. ,usskind generali'es this idea and applies it to string theory in his paper !he 2orld as a *ologram, and the *olographic Principle is born.

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)athan ,eiberg and Ed 2itten discover electric-magnetic duality in )B2 supersymmetric gauge theory in four spacetime dimensions, with very important applications in both mathematics and string theory. 2itten and !ownsend introduce the idea of !ype $ superstring theory as a special limit of ""-dimensional supergravity theory with 3uanti'ed membranes. !his begins the (theory revolution in superstring theory, and leads people to ponder the role of spacetime in string theory. $ndrew 2iles, with help from >ichard !aylor, completes a rigorous proof of 7ermat-s 4ast !heorem. 6oseph Polchinski ignites the =-brane revolution in string theory with his paper describing e%tended ob5ects in string theory formed by dual open strings with =irichlet boundary conditions. n their paper (icroscopic /rigin of Black *ole Entropy, $ndy ,trominger and +umrun <afa use =-branes to count the 3uantum states of an e%treme black hole and their result matches the Bekenstein-*awking value. !his stimulates new respect for string theory from the relativity community. 6uan (aldacena finds that string theory in a background of five-dimensional anti-de ,itter space times a five-sphere obeys a duality relationship with superconformal field theory in four spacetime dimensions. !he result, called $d,-+7! duality, opens up a new era of e%ploration in string theory.

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