Introduction

Abstract

In the fall of 1994 E. Witten announced a “new gauge theory of 4-manifolds”, capable of giving results analogous to the earlier theory of Donaldson, but where the computations involved are “at least a thousand times easier” (Taubes). The dawn of the new theory began with the introduction of the monopole equations, whose roots lie in the depths of the still rather mysterious notion of S-duality in N = 2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory (IX: [59], [60])².

Where the fire is churned, where the wind wafts, where the Soma juice flows over—there the mind is born.

Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 2.6¹