Physics and Geometry

TL;DR

This paper reviews the evolution of fundamental physics concepts from independent ideas to a unified, dynamic structure, highlighting the progress from classical theories to modern string theory.

Contribution

It provides a conceptual overview of how physics' core ideas have transformed through unification efforts, emphasizing the shift to a unified geometric framework.

Findings

Space and time are now seen as aspects of a unified structure

Matter and force are dynamically determined within this framework

Progress from classical to string theory illustrates conceptual evolution

Abstract

Our understanding of the four basic concepts of Physics -- space, time, matter and force -- has undergone radical change in the course of work on unification, starting with Maxwell's unification of electricity with magnetism, all the way to present day string theory. What started as four independent concepts, with space and time postulated and the possible forms of matter and force arbitrarily chosen, now appear as different aspects of a rich and novel dynamically determined structure.