Schwarz, Albert
Oral history interview with Albert Schwarz, 2021 June 2.
Interview with Albert Schwarz, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics Emeritus at UC Davis. Schwarz discusses his current interests in pursuing a geometric approach to quantum theory, and he recounts his family origins in Russia and Eastern Europe and their travails under Stalins oppression. He describes his early interests in math and his education at the Ivanovo Pedagogical Institute under the guidance of Professor Efremovich, who guided him in the new field of geometric group theory. Schwarz discusses his graduate research at Moscow University, where he focused on the homology of the space of closed curves and on the topology of the space of Fredholm maps during his postgraduate work. He explains the impact of Polyakovs and tHoofts work on magnetic monopoles and gauge fields in the 1970s, and he describes his contributions to instanton research. Schwarz recounts his earliest exposure to string theory and his subsequent work on supergravity, and he explains the opportunities and considerations that allowed him to emigrate to the United States. He discusses his initial contacts with Ed Witten and his appointment at the Institute for Advanced Study and his job offer at Davis. Schwarz explains his interest in Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism and his appreciation of the value in relating non-commutative geometry to string theory and M-theory. He describes why a geometric approach to quantum theory de-emphasizes the differences between classical and quantum mechanics. At the end of the interview, Schwarz reflects on some of the life lessons he learned from the difficulties of his youth, how his background gives him a uniquely Russian approach to math and physics, and he explains a duality in string theory where it does not currently explain reality but that ultimately, the right physics will arise from it.
Albert Schwarz is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at UC Davis. Schwarz completed his graduate studies in Russia at Ivanovo Pedagogical Institute and conducted graduate research at Moscow University before emigrating to the United States and working at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Fuks, D. B.
Hooft, G. 't
Polyakov, A. M.
Smale, Stephen, 1930-
Witten, E.
Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, N.J.)
Ivanovski gosudarstvenny universitet
Moskovski gosudarstvenny universitet im. M.V. Lomonosova
University of California, Davis
Gauge fields (Physics)
Geometric group theory
Instantons.
Magnetic monopoles.
Quantum theory
S-matrix theory
String models.
Supergravity
Topology.
Soviet Union -- Politics and government.
Interviews. aat
Oral histories. aat
Transcripts. aat
Zierler, David, 1979- interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA