DescriptionGeneral Relativity provides a beautiful geometrical theory of gravity. Recent work, motivated in part by the interest in higher dimensional spacetimes coming from string theory, has discovered that the behaviour of this theory has an interesting dependence on the number of spacetime dimensions. The space of solutions can be far richer in higher dimensional spacetimes.The project will explore the differences (and similarities) between higher dimensions and the four dimensional theory. In particular, we will explore the space of black hole solutions in higher-dimensional gravity. We will investigate what light the study of the higher-dimensional theory can shed on the more familiar four dimensional story and on fundamental theories that involve higher dimensions, such as string theory. There will be opportunities for particularly keen students to make contact with the non-perturbative formulation of string theory through what is called the AdS/CFT correspondence, which relates gravity to a field theory. This is a rich subject, and there are a wide variety of possible avenues for exploration. The project offers the chance to encounter ideas at the leading edge of an important field of current research. Prerequisite MATH 3331,
General Relativity |
email: Simon Ross