Some Multifaceted Aspects of Mathematical Physics, Our Common Denominator with Elliott Lieb †

Abstract

Mathematical physics has many facets, of which we shall briefly give a (very partial) description, centered around those of main interest for Elliott and us (Moshe Flato and I), and around the seminal scientific and personal interactions that developed between us since the sixties until Moshe’s untimely death in 1998. These aspects still influence my scientific activity and my life. They also had as a corollary a variety of “parascientific activities”, in particular, the foundation of IAMP (the International Association of Mathematical Physics) and of the journal LMP (Letters in Mathematical Physics), both of which were strongly impacted by Elliott, and Elliott’s long insistence that publishers do not demand “copyright transfer” as a precondition for publication but are satisfied with a “consent to publish”, which is increasingly becoming standard. This article being mainly a testimony to the huge scientific impacts of Elliott and also of Moshe, their intertwined aspects constitute the core of the present contribution. The last part deals briefly with metaphysical and metamathematical considerations related to axioms.