Symmetric polynomials in physics
  We give two examples where symmetric polynomials play an important role in physics: First, the partition functions of ideal quantum gases are closely related to certain symmetric polynomials, and a part of the corresponding theory has a thermodynamical interpretation. Further, the same symmetric polynomials also occur in Berezin's theory of quantization of phase spaces with constant curvature. 
Heinz-Juergen Schmidt and Juergen Schnack