Paper Info

John Baez

You can get a bunch of math and physics papers electronically by going to the xxx e-print archives. There is a lot of information to read if you're having trouble figuring out how it works. Once you know what you're doing, it's easy to download papers using the xxx `form interface'. From there, you can easily get ahold of papers in the following physics archives:

• astro-ph Astrophysics
• cond-mat Condensed Matter
• gr-qc General Relativity & Quantum Cosmology
• hep-th High Energy Physics - Experiment
• hep-lat High Energy Physics - Lattice
• hep-ph High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
• hep-th High Energy Physics - Theory
• math-ph Mathematical Physics
• nucl-ex Nuclear Experiment
• nucl-th Nuclear Theory
• quant-ph Quantum Physics
• physics Physics (various topics not covered above)

as well as those in the math archive:

• math

Another nice interface to the math archive is the

• U.C. Davis front end

Math papers are divided into the following subject classifications. (Some of these subject classifications subsume the old math archives alg-geom, dg-ga, funct-an, and q-alg.)

• AG - Algebraic Geometry (subsumes alg-geom)
  Real and complex algebraic geometry, schemes, stacks, commutative rings, local rings
• AP - Analysis of PDEs
  Existence and uniqueness, boundary conditions, linear and non-linear operators, stability, soliton theory, integrable PDE's, conservation laws, qualitative dynamics
• AT - Algebraic Topology
  Homotopy theory, homological algebra, algebraic treatments of manifolds
• CA - Classical Analysis
  Special functions, orthogonal polynomials, harmonic analysis, ODE's, differential relations, calculus of variations, approximations, expansions, asymptotics
• CO - Combinatorics
  Discrete mathematics, graph theory, enumeration, lattice theory
• CT - Category Theory
  Enriched categories, topoi, abelian categories, monoidal categories, homological algebra
• CV - Complex variables
  Holomorphic functions, automorphic group actions and forms, pseudoconvexity, complex geometry, analytic spaces, analytic sheaves
• DG - Differential geometry (subsumes dg-ga)
  Complex, contact, Riemannian, pseudo-Riemannian geometry, relativity, gauge theory, global analysis
• DS - Dynamical Systems
  Dynamics of differential equations and flows, mechanics, classical few-body problems, iterations, complex dynamics, delayed differential equations
• FA - Functional analysis Banach spaces, function spaces, real functions, integral transforms, theory of distributions, measure theory
• GN - General Topology
  Continuum theory, point-set topology, spaces with algebraic structure, foundations, dimension theory, local and global properties
• GR - Group theory
  Finite groups, topological groups, representation theory, cohomology, classification and structure
• GT - Geometric Topology
  Manifolds, orbifolds, polyhedra, cell complexes, foliations, geometric structures
• HO - History and Overview
  Biographies, philosophy of mathematics, mathematics education, recreational mathematics, communication of mathematics
• IG - Infinite Group Theory
  Combinatorial and geometric group theory, presentations, hyperbolic and automatic groups, related topics
• KT - K-theory
  Algebraic and topological K-theory, relations with topology, commutative algebra, and operator algebras
• LA - Linear Algebra
  Analytic, combinatorial, and algebraic matrix analysis, numerical and computational linear algebra, applications to science and engineering, multilinear algebra
• LO - Logic
  Logic, set theory, point-set topology, formal mathematics
• MG - Metric Geometry
  Euclidean, hyperbolic, discrete, convex, coarse geometry, comparisons in Riemannian geometry, symmetric spaces
• MP - Mathematical Physics
  Rigorous results in all areas of theoretical physics, and physically motivated mathematics
• NA - Numerical Analysis
  Numerical algorithms for problems in analysis and algebra
• NT - Number Theory
  Prime numbers, diophantine equations, analytic number theory, algebraic number theory, arithmetic geometry, Galois theory
• OA - Operator Algebras
  (subsumes funct-an)
  Algebras of operators on Hilbert space, C*-algebras, von Neumann algebras, non-commutative geometry
• OC - Optimization and Control
  Operations research, linear programming, control theory, systems theory, optimal control
• PR - Probability Theory
  Stochastic processes, ergodic theory, martingale theory
• QA - Quantum algebra (subsumes q-alg)
  Quantum groups, skein theories, operadic and diagrammatic algebra, quantum field theory
• RA - Rings and Algebras
  Commutative and non-commutative rings and algebras, non-associative algebras, universal algebra, semigroups
• RT - Representation Theory
  Linear representations of algebras and groups, Lie theory, associative algebras, multilinear algebra
• SC - Scientific Computation
  Scientific and industrial simulations and algorithms, fluid mechanics, models of solids, geophysics, mathematical biology, economic models
• SG - Symplectic Geometry
  Hamiltonian systems, symplectic flows, classical integrable systems
• SP - Spectral Theory
  Schrodinger operators, operators on manifolds, general differential operators, numerical studies, integral operators, discrete models, resonances, non-self-adjoint operators, random operators/matrices

Starting from the xxx form interface, you can also get papers in various `nonlinear science' archives:

• adap-org Adaptation, Noise, and Self-Organizing Systems
• chao-dyn Chaotic Dynamics
• comp-gas Cellular Automata and Lattice Gases
• nlin-sys Nonlinear Systems
• patt-sol Pattern Formation and Solitons
• solv-int Exactly Solvable and Integrable Systems

Mathematicians are an unruly and individualistic lot, so there are still some other mathematics servers that don't necessarily work the way the above ones do:

• Algebraic Number Theory (U. Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
• Algebraic Topology (Purdue)
• Conservation Laws Preprint Server (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway)
• Electronic Colloquium on Computational Complexity (Trier, Germany)
• K-theory (U. Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
• Mathematical Physics (U. Texas Austin)
• Probability Abstracts (U. Washington)
• Representations and Cohomology of Groups (U. Georgia)

There is also the

• American Mathematical Society

Dive in! These days, I get most of the new papers I read from these preprint archives. They're great.

On a somewhat different note, if you're doing a bibliographic search for papers on high-energy physics, try:

• The SPIRES-HEP database

Also, if you want to know how to fight back against overpriced journals, read this.

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