> November: Maths around the year 2000
> Super-strings?
as the "November" entry in a "mathematics timeline" for the 2nd millennium.
"Super-strings" is part of theoretical physics (in its most speculative
form !), hardly a memorable mathematical achievement.
However, in the same spirit, a more suitable substitution might be
"Noncommutative geometry"; see the two reviews in the Notices of the
American Mathematical Society, 44(7), pp 792-805, August 1997.
Andrew Lesniewski's opinion (second of the reviews cited, p 805: "Final
remarks") :
"Connes' "Noncommutative geometry" is one of the milestones of
mathematics. It lays the foundations of a new branch of mathematics
whose importance is difficult to overestimate. Its impact will be
felt by generations of mathematicians to come, the way Riemann's
"Ueber die Hypothesen..." influenced the development of differential
geometry."
might be weighted against his own admission that:
"I focused on the aspect of noncommutative geometry which I understand
best, and these are its relationships with theoretical physics"
Whatever the case may be (or rather will turn out to be) noncommutative
geometry appears to be closer to mathematics than string theory.
To be sure there are many mathematicians who would dismiss them both as
worthy to figure on a "mathematics timeline" for the 2nd millennium.
I am not competent to argue this point one way or another.
Dr R J-M Grognard