Symmetries in physics

Abstract

The concept of symmetries in physics is briefly reviewed. In the first part of these lecture notes, some of the basic mathematical tools needed for the understanding of symmetries in nature are presented, namely group theory, Lie groups and Lie algebras, and Noether's theorem. In the second part, some applications of symmetries in physics are discussed, ranging from isospin and flavor symmetry to more recent developments involving the interacting boson model and its extension to supersymmetries in nuclear physics.