The Mathematical Beauty of Quantum Algebras

摘要

As a senior fellow working at Dstl, for over 12 years I was in charge of a NATO research group. This involved flying out from Heathrow about every three months to meetings across a range of NATO countries, including the US and Canada, and other interested nations, such as Sweden and Australia. I needed something to while away the time waiting for connecting flights. The thick 1000-page novels on offer in Terminal 5 were not appealing. In my PhD at Newcastle University in the early 1970s, I worked on the mathematical theory of groups acting on quantum operator algebras. I found myself drawn back to that world because the books were thinner and reading just a few pages and understanding them in full depth could easily while away several hours; an ideal combination. In this way I taught myself the connection between the mathematics of my PhD thesis and the physical roots of the subject. This brief paper is an attempt to give you a flavour of what I found.