Not just that, many mathematical advances have been made well before physical applications ever caught up. For example, Calculus was invented in the late seventeenth century while Maxwell only used it to discover EM equations in the 19th century.

Similarly, matrices existed way before QM was even formalized but now it heavily relies on Matrix Algebra.

Number Theory had no usage whatsoever until it suddenly had in cryptography. Therefore, nowadays, I have begun to think of any new mathematical inventions as a possible prelude to the future.