Symmetric products of surfaces; a unifying theme for topology and physics

Abstract

This is a review paper about symmetric products of spaces $SP^n(X):= X^n/S_n$. We focus our attention on the symmetric products of 2-manifolds and make a journey through selected topics of algebraic topology, algebraic geometry, mathematical physics, theoretical mechanics etc. where these objects play an important role, demonstrating along the way the fundamental unity of diverse fields of physics and mathematics.