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Im a mathematical physicist, and lately I keep reading papers that throw this jargon around, and its beginning to bother me that I don't know anything about it, it feels like a gap in my knowledge.
I was trained as a mathematician in undergrad so of course it is somewhat familiar to me, proffessors used to throw the lingo around to act smart.
However, it never seems like it buys you much, at least in physics. It just looks like a more complicated (albeit perhaps more elegant) exercise in abstraction.
So 2 questions. Does anyone know of useful nontrivial results that were only apparent with category theory in physics, and does anyone have a good reference/weblink that gives an easy introduction for an idiot =)
I was trained as a mathematician in undergrad so of course it is somewhat familiar to me, proffessors used to throw the lingo around to act smart.
However, it never seems like it buys you much, at least in physics. It just looks like a more complicated (albeit perhaps more elegant) exercise in abstraction.
So 2 questions. Does anyone know of useful nontrivial results that were only apparent with category theory in physics, and does anyone have a good reference/weblink that gives an easy introduction for an idiot =)