Dr Jan B Gutowski - Current Research Interests
I am a member of the Mathematics of Gravity and Quantum Field Theory group in the School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Surrey.
My interests are in higher dimensional gravity, black holes, and supersymmetric solutions in String Theory.
The question I am currently working on is deceptively simple...
Are all black holes spherical, or can they have other shapes?
In four dimensions, we know that all black holes have spherical horizons.
But in five dimensions, there are more unusual solutions - as well as the usual spherical black holes, whose event horizons are three-dimensional spheres, there are also black rings and even black Saturns!
In string/M-theory, we must consider gravitational systems in ten and eleven dimensions.
We expect that there will be many unusual types of generalized black hole solutions.
Their event horizons may be products of spheres, or more complicated geometries, such as manifolds equipped with G2 or Spin(7) structures.
I have constructed classifications of supersymmetric black hole horizon geometries in ten and eleven dimensions.
By analyzing global properties of these geometries, using generalized Lichnerowicz theorems, combined with index theory, I have shown that these generically have more symmetry than we might naively expect!
I have adapted these techniques to analyse global properties of anti-de-Sitter supergravity solutions of relevance to AdS/CFT.
For a more detailed (but reasonably readable!) description of my work see here.
For a list of my publications see the INSPIRE database