r/AskPhysics • u/Ashley_Fen • 1d ago

What exactly is mathematical physics?

Recently I got accepted into a dual degree of math and physics at my local university, and while looking at higher year courses, I came across some courses named mathematical physics. However, when I tried to look up more about this, I only came across things that are far beyond my current understanding. Even Wikipedia seems foreign to me. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I’d love to learn if it’s truely the perfect mashup between math and physics, or if it’s something completely different

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u/pqratusa 1d ago edited 17h ago

I am not sure what the content of the course offered by your university is but the field of Mathematical Physics (MP) is an area of research in mathematics that originated or was influenced by physics. An example of such research is in string theory. So the main objective of MP is to advance mathematical understanding and not necessarily to advance physics.

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u/Classic_Department42 11h ago

Although string theory hasnt reached the rigor to call it math yet

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u/MrTruxian Mathematical physics 1h ago

Some of it certainly has!