John Baez's Papers

• Popularizations,

• Serious Stuff,

  and

• This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics.

Also in this directory is the physics FAQ, or frequently asked questions list.

Popularizations:

• bayes - a collection of old posts and email on Bayesianism in probability theory and quantum mechanics.

• books - a random list of a few of my favorite books on math and physics.

• braids.tex - a LaTeX file containing lectures on knot polynomials, braids, anyons, r-commutative geometry, and lots of other neat things.

• braids - an ordinary version of the same thing.

• categories - a sketch of category theory and how it relates to quantization.

• crackpot - the "crackpot index" for physicists.

• discrete - discreteness and the role of compact groups in the quantum mechanics of spin and the harmonic oscillator.

• gr - a tutorial on general relativity. Now there is no excuse not to understand this beautiful and important theory!

• gr.tutorial.Z - transcripts of the entire general relativity tutorial as it occurred on sci.physics, in compressed form. After downloading it, do "uncompress gr.tutorial.Z" (at least on UNIX systems). Beware: this is a large file.

• lengths - a tour of 4 basic length scales in physics.

• penrose - summary of a chat with Penrose.

• preprint.info - information on how to get all sorts of preprints electronically.

• six - a tour of some amazing properties of the group of permutations of 6 elements, and its relation to the icosahedron.

• spin.stat - a sketch of the proof of the spin-statistics theorem.

• stars - stuff about stars, especially some of the weird ones.

• symmetries - an account of the appearance of symmetry groups in physics.

• tangles - a primer on the category of tangles.

Serious Stuff:

These are some papers that have appeared, or will appear, in journals. For a complete list of my serious stuff, click here .

• bf.tex - a LaTeX file of the paper, "4-dimensional BF theory as a topological quantum field theory." A figure for this paper appears as the file "figure.ps"

• bm2cat.ps.Z - a compressed version of the Postscript file of the paper, "Higher-dimensional algebra I: braided monoidal 2-categories." This is big (51 pages with lots of diagrams). To print it out, first save it as bm2cat.ps.Z and (at least on UNIX operating systems) do "uncompress bm2cat.ps.Z". This should produce a file "bm2cat.ps", which you can print out however you usually print out Postscript files.

• bound.tex - a LaTeX file of the paper, "Quantum gravity on manifolds with boundary."

• ca.tex - a LaTeX file of the paper, "An algebraic approach to discrete mechanics."

• conn.tex - a LaTeX file of the paper, "Generalized measures in gauge theory."

• errata - a list of errata for the book "Gauge Fields, Knots and Gravity."

• int.ps - a Postscript file of the paper, "Functional integration on spaces of connections."

• knot.tex - a LaTeX file of the paper, "Knots and quantum gravity: progress and prospects."

• link.dvi - a dvi file of the paper, "Link invariants, holonomy algebras and functional integration."

• ncat.def - a sketch of a definition of weak n-categories.

• net.tex - a LaTeX file of the paper, "Spin networks in nonperturbative quantum gravity."

• spin.tex - a LaTeX file of the paper, "Spin network states in gauge theory."

• state.tex - a LaTeX file of the paper, "Diffeomorphism-invariant generalized measures on the space of connections modulo gauge transformations."

• stat.dvi - a dvi file of the paper, "Topological aspects of spin and statistics for nonlinear sigma models."

• string.tex - a LaTeX file of the paper, "Strings, loops, knots and gauge fields."

• string2.tex - a LaTeX file of the paper, "Strings and two-dimensional QCD for finite N."

• tqft.ps - A PostScript file of the paper, "Higher-dimensional algebra and topological quantum field theory." Alas, this does not contain the crucial hand-drawn figures. So just preview the paper to see if you're really interested in it, and then Jour. Math. Phys. 36 (1995), pp. 6073-6105 to see the real thing, or else email me with your snailmail address and I'll send you a copy.

• vas.tex - a LaTeX file of the paper, "Link invariants of finite type and perturbation theory."

• tang.tex - a LaTeX file of the paper, "Quantum gravity and the algebra of tangles."

This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics:

These describe papers and books I happened to find enjoyable, especially ones that have not yet been published. Warning: the things I've included are not necessarily more important or better than things I haven't! Also, my comments are not intended as "reviews" evaluating the papers; instead, they are simply aimed at getting you interested!

To see the latest edition, click here.

To see a list of all the old issues, click here.

Many of the papers I review are available on preprint archives such as hep-th, gr-qc, and q-alg. If you click on the number of one of these papers, such as hep-th/9301028, a magic carpet will carry you to a place where a genie will try to compile the paper for you in postscript form, which you can then download. Click here for more information on how to get preprints electronically.