THE CENTRAL ROLE OF SYMMETRY IN PHYSICS

Abstract

Spacetime and internal symmetries can be used to severely restrict the form of the equations for the fundamental laws of physics. The success of this approach in the context of general relativity and particle physics motivates the conjecture that symmetries may help us to one day uncover the ultimate theory that provides a unique, unified description of all observed physical phenomena. We examine some of the strengths and weaknesses of this conjecture.