By J. Baez and A. Lauda:
This paper traces the growing role of categories and n-categories in
physics, starting with groups and their role in relativity, and
leading up to more sophisticated concepts which manifest themselves
in Feynman diagrams, spin networks, string theory, loop quantum
gravity, and topological quantum eld theory. Our chronology ends
around 2000, with just a taste of later developments such as
open-closed topological string theory, the categorication of quantum
groups, Khovanov homology, and Lurie's work on the classication of
topological quantum eld theories.
<http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/history.pdf>Link (PDF)
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Posted By johannes to
<http://www.monochrom.at/english/2009/11/prehistory-of-n-categorical-physics.htm>monochrom
at 11/16/2009 02:49:00 PM
