Edward Witten

Witten was born on August 26, 1951, in Baltimore, Maryland, to a Jewish family,{{Cite web

|title=Edward Witten - Biography

|url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Witten/|access-date=2023-02-01

| author1 = J J O'Connor

| author2= E F Robertson

| date= September 2009

| publisher= University of St Andrews

|website=Maths History|language=en}} as the eldest of four children. His brother Matt Witten became a writer, and his brother Jesse Amnon Witten became a law partner in the firm Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath.{{cite web|title=LDB Appoints Jesse A. Witten to the LDB Legal Advisory Board|date=October 20, 2020|website=Brandeis Center|url=https://brandeiscenter.com/ldb-appoints-jesse-a-witten-to-the-ldb-legal-advisory-board/}} The three brothers' sister Celia M. Witten earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Stanford University{{MathGenealogy|id=18616|name=Celia Witten}} and then an M.D. from the University of Miami.{{cite web|title=Celia Witten, M.D., Ph.D.|website=The University of Texas at Austin, College of Pharmacy|url=https://sites.utexas.edu/cpe-icdd/speakers/celia-witten}} Edward Witten is the son of Lorraine (born Wollach) Witten{{cite news|title=Obituary for Lorraine Witten|newspaper=The Cincinnati Enquirer|date=February 10, 1987|page=13|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-obituary-for-lor/72622660/}} and Louis Witten, a theoretical physicist specializing in gravitation and general relativity.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zEp1LT7dQMoC&q=LORRAINE+LOUIS+WITTEN|title=The International Who's Who: 1992–93|date=1992|publisher=Europa Publications|isbn=978-0-946653-84-3|page=1754}}

Witten attended the Park School of Baltimore (class of 1968), and received his Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in history and minor in linguistics from Brandeis University in 1971.{{Cite web|title=Edward Witten (1951)|url=https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/medalofscience50/witten.jsp|access-date=August 25, 2020|website=www.nsf.gov}}

He had aspirations in journalism and politics and published articles in both The New Republic and The Nation in the late 1960s.{{Cite magazine|last=Witten|first=Edward|title=Are You Listening, D.H. Lawrence?|magazine=The New Republic|date=October 18, 1969}}{{Cite news|last=Witten|first=Edward|title=The New Left |work=The Nation|date=December 16, 1968}} In 1972, he worked for six months on George McGovern's presidential campaign.{{Cite web|last=Farmelo|first=Graham|date=May 2, 2019|title='The Universe Speaks in Numbers' – Interview 5|url=https://grahamfarmelo.com/the-universe-speaks-in-numbers-interview-5/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503163123/https://grahamfarmelo.com/the-universe-speaks-in-numbers-interview-5/|archive-date=May 3, 2019|access-date=August 25, 2020|website=Graham Farmelo}} [https://backreaction.blogspot.com/2019/05/graham-farmelos-interview-of-edward.html Alt URL]

Witten attended the University of Michigan for one semester as an economics graduate student before dropping out.{{Cite web |date=2022-02-24 |title=Edward Witten |url=https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/46968 |access-date=2022-06-21 |website=www.aip.org |language=en}} He returned to academia, enrolling in applied mathematics at Princeton University in 1973, then shifting departments and receiving a PhD in physics in 1976 and completing a dissertation, "Some problems in the short distance analysis of gauge theories", under the supervision of David Gross.{{Cite book|last=Witten|first=E.|url=https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/1632693|title=Some problems in the short distance analysis of gauge theories|date=1976}} He held a fellowship at Harvard University (1976–77), visited Oxford University (1977–78),{{Cite web |url=http://www.sns.ias.edu/ckfinder/userfiles/files/ComemorativeLecturePopular%281%29.pdf |title=Edward Witten – Adventures in physics and math (Kyoto Prize lecture 2014) |access-date=October 30, 2016 |archive-date=August 23, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160823223743/http://www.sns.ias.edu/ckfinder/userfiles/files/ComemorativeLecturePopular(1).pdf |url-status=dead }}[http://www.sns.ias.edu/sites/default/files/Interview.pdf Interview by Hirosi Ooguri] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329131003/http://www.sns.ias.edu/sites/default/files/Interview.pdf |date=March 29, 2017 }}, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, May 2015, pp. 491–506. was a junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows (1977–1980), and held a MacArthur Foundation fellowship (1982).

Witten was awarded the Fields Medal by the International Mathematical Union in 1990.{{Cite web|date=2011|title=Edward Witten|url=http://www.sns.ias.edu/~witten/CurrentCV.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204111241/http://www.sns.ias.edu/~witten/CurrentCV.pdf|archive-date=February 4, 2012|access-date=April 13, 2021}}

In a written address to the ICM, Michael Atiyah said of Witten:

{{blockquote|text=Although he is definitely a physicist (as his list of publications clearly shows) his command of mathematics is rivaled by few mathematicians, and his ability to interpret physical ideas in mathematical form is quite unique. Time and again he has surprised the mathematical community by a brilliant application of physical insight leading to new and deep mathematical theorems ... He has made a profound impact on contemporary mathematics. In his hands physics is once again providing a rich source of inspiration and insight in mathematics.}}

{{stack|File:Widden Mori.jpg, probably at the ICM in 1990, where they received the Fields Medal]]}}

As an example of Witten's work in pure mathematics, Atiyah cites his application of techniques from quantum field theory to the mathematical subject of low-dimensional topology. In the late 1980s, Witten coined the term topological quantum field theory for a certain type of physical theory in which the expectation values of observable quantities encode information about the topology of spacetime.{{Citation | last1=Witten | first1=Edward | year=1988 | title=Topological quantum field theory | url=http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS/Repository/1.0/Disseminate?view=body&id=pdf_1&handle=euclid.cmp/1104161738 | journal=Communications in Mathematical Physics | volume=117 | issue=3 | pages=353–386 |bibcode = 1988CMaPh.117..353W |doi = 10.1007/BF01223371 | s2cid=43230714 }} In particular, Witten realized that a physical theory now called Chern–Simons theory could provide a framework for understanding the mathematical theory of knots and 3-manifolds.{{Cite journal |last=Witten |first=Edward |year=1989 |title=Quantum Field Theory and the Jones Polynomial |url=http://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~aar/papers/witten.pdf |journal=Communications in Mathematical Physics |volume=121 |issue=3 |pages=351–399 |bibcode = 1989CMaPh.121..351W |doi = 10.1007/BF01217730 |s2cid=14951363 }} Although Witten's work was based on the mathematically ill-defined notion of a Feynman path integral and therefore not mathematically rigorous, mathematicians were able to systematically develop Witten's ideas, leading to the theory of Reshetikhin–Turaev invariants.{{cite journal |last1=Reshetikhin |first1=Nicolai |last2=Turaev |first2=Vladimir |year=1991 |title=Invariants of 3-manifolds via link polynomials and quantum groups |journal=Inventiones Mathematicae |volume=103 |issue=1 |pages=547–597 |bibcode = 1991InMat.103..547R |doi = 10.1007/BF01239527 |s2cid=123376541 }}

Another result for which Witten was awarded the Fields Medal was his proof in 1981 of the positive energy theorem in general relativity.{{cite journal |last1=Witten |first1=Edward |year=1981 |title=A new proof of the positive energy theorem |url=http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS/Repository/1.0/Disseminate?view=body&id=pdf_1&handle=euclid.cmp/1103919981 |journal=Communications in Mathematical Physics |volume=80 |issue=3 |pages=381–402 |bibcode = 1981CMaPh..80..381W |doi = 10.1007/BF01208277 |s2cid=1035111 }} This theorem asserts that (under appropriate assumptions) the total energy of a gravitating system is always positive and can be zero only if the geometry of spacetime is that of flat Minkowski space. It establishes Minkowski space as a stable ground state of the gravitational field. While the original proof of this result due to Richard Schoen and Shing-Tung Yau used variational methods,{{cite journal |last1=Schoen |first1=Robert |last2=Yau |first2=Shing-Tung |year=1979 |title=On the proof of the positive mass conjecture in general relativity |journal=Communications in Mathematical Physics |volume=65 |issue=1 |page=45 |bibcode = 1979CMaPh..65...45S |doi = 10.1007/BF01940959 |s2cid=54217085 |url=http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.cmp/1103904790 }}{{cite journal |last1=Schoen |first1=Robert |last2=Yau |first2=Shing-Tung |year=1981 |title=Proof of the positive mass theorem. II |journal=Communications in Mathematical Physics |volume=79 |issue=2 |page=231 |bibcode = 1981CMaPh..79..231S |doi = 10.1007/BF01942062 |s2cid=59473203 |url=http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.cmp/1103908964 }} Witten's proof used ideas from supergravity theory to simplify the argument.{{cite journal | last=Parker | first=Thomas H. | title=Gauge choice in Witten's energy expression | journal=Communications in Mathematical Physics | volume=100 | issue=4 | date=1985 | issn=0010-3616 | doi=10.1007/BF01217725 | pages=471–480| bibcode=1985CMaPh.100..471P | url=http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.cmp/1104114001 }}

A third area mentioned in Atiyah's address is Witten's work relating supersymmetry and Morse theory,{{cite journal | last1=Witten | first1=Edward | title=Super-symmetry and Morse Theory | year=1982 | journal=Journal of Differential Geometry| pages=661–692 | volume=17| issue=4 | doi=10.4310/jdg/1214437492 | doi-access=free }} a branch of mathematics that studies the topology of manifolds using the concept of a differentiable function. Witten's work gave a physical proof of a classical result, the Morse inequalities, by interpreting the theory in terms of supersymmetric quantum mechanics.

By the mid 1990s, physicists working on string theory had developed five different consistent versions of the theory. These versions are known as type I, type IIA, type IIB, and the two flavors of heterotic string theory (SO(32) and E₈×E₈). The thinking was that of these five candidate theories, only one was the actual correct theory of everything, and that theory was the one whose low-energy limit matched the physics observed in our world today.{{cite book | last=Rickles | first=Dean | title=A Brief History of String Theory | publisher=Springer | date=2016-08-23 | isbn=978-3-662-50183-2}}

Speaking at Strings '95 conference at University of Southern California, Witten made the surprising suggestion that these five string theories were in fact not distinct theories, but different limits of a single theory, which he called M-theory.{{Cite conference

| publisher=University of Southern California

| place=Los Angeles

| series=Future Perspectives in String Theory

| date = 13–18 March 1995

| author= Witten, E.

| title= Some problems of strong and weak coupling

|url=http://physics.usc.edu/Strings95/program.html|access-date=2023-02-01|website=physics.usc.edu}}{{cite journal |last1=Witten |first1=Edward |year=1995 |title=String theory dynamics in various dimensions |journal=Nuclear Physics B |volume=443 |issue=1 |pages=85–126 |doi=10.1016/0550-3213(95)00158-O|arxiv = hep-th/9503124 |bibcode = 1995NuPhB.443...85W |s2cid=16790997 }} Witten's proposal was based on the observation that the five string theories can be mapped to one another by certain rules called dualities and are identified by these dualities. It led to a flurry of work now known as the second superstring revolution.

{{stack|File:Gross Witten Hawking TIFR 2001.jpg and Stephen Hawking at Strings 2001 at TIFR in Mumbai, India]]}}

Another of Witten's contributions to physics was to the result of gauge/gravity duality. In 1997, Juan Maldacena formulated a result known as the AdS/CFT correspondence, which establishes a relationship between certain quantum field theories and theories of quantum gravity.{{cite journal | author=Juan M. Maldacena | title=The Large N limit of superconformal field theories and supergravity | journal=Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics | volume=2 | year=1998 | issue=2 | pages=231–252 | arxiv=hep-th/9711200|bibcode = 1998AdTMP...2..231M | doi=10.4310/ATMP.1998.V2.N2.A1 }} Maldacena's discovery has dominated high-energy theoretical physics for the past 15 years because of its applications to theoretical problems in quantum gravity and quantum field theory. Witten's foundational work following Maldacena's result has shed light on this relationship.{{cite journal | author=Edward Witten | title=Anti-de Sitter space and holography | journal=Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics | volume=2 | issue=2 | year=1998 | pages=253–291 | arxiv=hep-th/9802150|bibcode = 1998AdTMP...2..253W | doi=10.4310/ATMP.1998.v2.n2.a2 | s2cid=10882387 }}

In collaboration with Nathan Seiberg, Witten established several powerful results in quantum field theories. In their paper on string theory and noncommutative geometry, Seiberg and Witten studied certain noncommutative quantum field theories that arise as limits of string theory.{{cite journal |last1=Seiberg |first1=Nathan |last2=Witten |first2=Edward |year=1999 |title=String Theory and Noncommutative Geometry |journal=Journal of High Energy Physics |volume=1999 | doi = 10.1088/1126-6708/1999/09/032 | page=032 | issue = 9|arxiv = hep-th/9908142 |bibcode = 1999JHEP...09..032S |s2cid=668885 }} In another well-known paper, they studied aspects of supersymmetric gauge theory.{{cite journal |last1=Seiberg |first1=Nathan |last2=Witten |first2=Edward |year=1994 |title=Electric-magnetic duality, monopole condensation, and confinement in N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory |journal=Nuclear Physics B |volume=426 |issue=1 |pages=19–52 |arxiv = hep-th/9407087 |bibcode = 1994NuPhB.426...19S |doi = 10.1016/0550-3213(94)90124-4 |s2cid=14361074 }} The latter paper, combined with Witten's earlier work on topological quantum field theory, led to developments in the topology of smooth 4-manifolds, in particular the notion of Seiberg–Witten invariants.{{citation|last=Donaldson|first= Simon K. |author-link=Simon Donaldson |title=The Seiberg-Witten equations and 4-manifold topology. |journal=Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society| series=(N.S.) |volume=33 |year=1996|issue= 1|pages= 45–70|doi=10.1090/S0273-0979-96-00625-8 |mr=1339810|doi-access=free}}

With Anton Kapustin, Witten has made deep mathematical connections between S-duality of gauge theories and the geometric Langlands correspondence.{{cite journal|last1=Kapustin|first1=Anton|last2=Witten|first2=Edward|date=April 21, 2006|title=Electric-Magnetic Duality And The Geometric Langlands Program|journal=Communications in Number Theory and Physics|volume=1|pages=1–236|arxiv=hep-th/0604151|bibcode=2007CNTP....1....1K|doi=10.4310/CNTP.2007.v1.n1.a1|s2cid=30505126}} Partly in collaboration with Seiberg, one of his recent interests includes aspects of field theoretical description of topological phases in condensed matter and non-supersymmetric dualities in field theories that, among other things, are of high relevance in condensed matter theory. In 2016, he has also brought tensor models to the relevance of holographic and quantum gravity theories, by using them as a generalization of the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev model.{{cite journal|last=Witten|first=Edward|date=October 31, 2016|title=An SYK-Like Model Without Disorder|journal=Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical|volume=52|issue=47|pages=474002|arxiv=1610.09758

|doi=10.1088/1751-8121/ab3752|s2cid=118412962}}

Witten has published influential and insightful work in many aspects of quantum field theories and mathematical physics, including the physics and mathematics of anomalies, integrability, dualities, localization, and homologies. Many of his results have deeply influenced areas in theoretical physics (often well beyond the original context of his results), including string theory, quantum gravity and topological condensed matter.{{cite web | last=Stiftung | first=Joachim Herz | title=News | website=Joachim Herz Stiftung | date=2023-07-03 | url=https://www.joachim-herz-stiftung.de/en/about-us/news/edward-witten | access-date=2024-02-25}} In particular, Witten is known for collaborating with Ruth Britto on a method calculating scattering amplitudes known as the BCFW recursion relations.

Witten has been honored with numerous awards including a MacArthur Grant (1982), the Fields Medal (1990), the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (1997),{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration}} the Nemmers Prize in Mathematics (2000), the National Medal of Science{{Cite web|title=The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details

| publisher= National Science Foundation

| year = 2003

|url=https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.jsp?recip_id=5000000000422

|access-date=2023-02-01|website=www.nsf.gov}} (2002), Pythagoras Award{{Cite news|newspaper=Il Crotonese |language=it |url=http://www.ilcrotonese.it/notizia.asp?IDNotizia=10957&IDCategoria=8 |date=September 23, 2005 |title=Il premio Pitagora al fisico teorico Witten |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722035239/http://www.ilcrotonese.it/notizia.asp?IDNotizia=10957&IDCategoria=8 |archive-date=July 22, 2011 }} (2005), the Henri Poincaré Prize (2006), the Crafoord Prize (2008), the Lorentz Medal (2010) the Isaac Newton Medal (2010) and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2012). Since 1999, he has been a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (London), and in March 2016 was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.{{Cite web|title=Current Fellows|url=https://royalsociety.org/fellows/fellows-directory/|access-date=2023-02-01|website=royalsociety.org}}{{Cite web|url = https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/1200_2016ElectedFellows.html|title = Fellows|date = June 21, 2016|access-date = March 8, 2016|archive-date = March 9, 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160309021343/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/1200_2016ElectedFellows.html|url-status = dead}} Pope Benedict XVI appointed Witten as a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (2006). He also appeared in the list of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2004. In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.{{Cite web|title=Fellows of the American Mathematical Society|url=http://www.ams.org/cgi-bin/fellows/fellows.cgi|access-date=2023-02-01|website=American Mathematical Society|language=en}} Witten was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1984, a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1988, and a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1993.{{Cite web|title=Edward Witten|url=https://www.amacad.org/person/edward-witten|website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences|access-date=May 13, 2020}}{{Cite web|title=Edward Witten|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/48991.html|website=www.nasonline.org|access-date=May 13, 2020}}{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Edward+Witten&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-03-21 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}} In May 2022 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania.{{cite web|title= Penn's 2022 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipients| access-date=2022-05-30 | url= https://almanac.upenn.edu/articles/penns-2022-commencement-speaker-and-honorary-degree-recipients#:~:text=Penn's%202022%20Commencement%20Speaker%20and%20Honorary%20Degree%20Recipients,-March%201%2C%202022&text=Award%2Dwinning%20documentary%20filmmaker%20Ken,an%20honorary%20degree%20from%20Penn.}}

In an informal poll at a 1990 cosmology conference, Witten received the largest number of mentions as "the smartest living physicist".{{cite magazine | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,994019,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901070759/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,994019,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=September 1, 2006 | title=Edward Witten | magazine=Time | date=April 26, 2004 | access-date=November 1, 2011 | author=Lemonick, Michael |author-link=Michael Lemonick}}{{pb}}"At a 1990 conference on cosmology," wrote John Horgan in 2014, "I asked attendees, who included folks like Stephen Hawking, Michael Turner, James Peebles, Alan Guth and Andrei Linde, to nominate the smartest living physicist. Edward Witten got the most votes (with Steven Weinberg the runner-up). Some considered Witten to be in the same league as Einstein and Newton." See {{Cite web |title = Physics Titan Edward Witten Still Thinks String Theory 'on the Right Track' |url = http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2014/09/22/physics-titan-edward-witten-still-thinks-string-theory-on-the-right-track/ |website = scientificamerican.com |date = September 22, 2014 |access-date = October 14, 2014 }}

Witten has been married to Chiara Nappi, a professor of physics at Princeton University, since 1979.{{Cite web | last = Witten | first = Ed | title = The 2014 Kyoto Prize Commemorative Lecture in Basic Sciences | url=https://www.sns.ias.edu/ckfinder/userfiles/files/ComemorativeLecturePopular(1).pdf | access-date=January 28, 2017}} They have two daughters and a son. Their daughter Ilana B. Witten is a neuroscientist at Princeton University,{{Cite web | title = Faculty » Ilana B. Witten | url = https://pni.princeton.edu/faculty/ilana-witten | website = princeton.edu | access-date = November 18, 2016 }} and daughter Daniela Witten is a biostatistician at the University of Washington.{{Cite web | title = UW Faculty » Daniela M. Witten | url = http://faculty.washington.edu/dwitten/ | website = washington.edu | access-date = July 9, 2015 }}

Witten sits on the board of directors of Americans for Peace Now and on the advisory council of J Street.{{cite web |url=http://jstreet.org/supporters/advisory-council |title=Advisory Council|publisher=J Street|year=2016|access-date=October 14, 2016}} He supports the two-state solution and advocates a boycott of Israeli institutions and economic activity beyond its 1967 borders, though not of Israel itself.{{Cite news|last1=Bird|first1=Kai|last2=Abraham|first2=David|last3=Witten|first3=Edward|last4=Walzer|first4=Michael|last5=Brooks|first5=Peter|last6=Beinart|first6=Peter|last7=Gitlin|first7=Todd|title=For an Economic Boycott and Political Nonrecognition of the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Territories | Todd Gitlin|language=en|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/10/13/economic-boycott-israeli-settlements/|access-date=2023-02-01|issn=0028-7504}} Witten lived in Israel for a year in the 1960s.{{Cite web |title= Edward Witten for Americans for Peace Now |url= https://archive.peacenow.org/entries/archive296 |date= February 8, 2005 |website= Americans for Peace Now |access-date= April 5, 2024 }}

• Some Problems in the Short Distance Analysis of Gauge Theories. Princeton University, 1976. (Dissertation.)
• Roman Jackiw, David Gross, Sam B. Treiman, Edward Witten, Bruno Zumino. Current Algebra and Anomalies: A Set of Lecture Notes and Papers. World Scientific, 1985.
• Green, M., John H. Schwarz, and E. Witten. Superstring Theory. Vol. 1, Introduction. Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988. {{ISBN|978-0-521-35752-4}}.
• Green, M., John H. Schwarz, and E. Witten. Superstring Theory. Vol. 2, Loop Amplitudes, Anomalies and Phenomenology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988. {{ISBN|978-0-521-35753-1}}.
• Quantum fields and strings: a course for mathematicians. Vols. 1, 2. Material from the Special Year on Quantum Field Theory held at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, 1996–1997. Edited by Pierre Deligne, Pavel Etingof, Daniel S. Freed, Lisa C. Jeffrey, David Kazhdan, John W. Morgan, David R. Morrison and Edward Witten. American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI; Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton, NJ, 1999. Vol. 1: xxii+723 pp.; Vol. 2: pp. i–xxiv and 727–1501. {{ISBN|0-8218-1198-3}}, 81–06 (81T30 81Txx).

{{reflist}}

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• [https://www.ias.edu/sns/witten Faculty webpage]
• [https://arxiv.org/find/hep-th/1/au:+Witten_E/0/1/0/all/0/1 Publications on ArXiv]
• {{MacTutor Biography|id=Witten}}
• {{MathGenealogy|id=31293}}
• [https://www.quantamagazine.org/edward-witten-ponders-the-nature-of-reality-20171128/ A Physicist's Physicist Ponders the Nature of Reality, Interview with Nathalie Wolchover in Quanta Magazine, November 28, 2017]

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