I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Theoretical Physics III at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. Until July 2010 I was a VIGRE postdoc and Visiting Research Assistant Professor at U.C. Davis. My research is in mathematical physics, especially classical and quantum gravity, and applications of geometry, topology, and n-category theory to physics.
On G+, I'm also known as +Derek Wise.
Lately, I've been thinking about general relativity from a slightly new angle, with Steffen Gielen. Here's our first paper, in which we study the classical dynamics of general relativity from the perspective of a "field of observers" in spacetime:
We describe a version of Hamiltonian gravity related to real Ashtekar variables. However, in our formulation, we use ideas from spontaneous symmetry breaking to maintain manifest Lorentz symmetry. Geometrically speaking, this paper is all about what we call Cartan geometrodynamics: we view gravity as describing time evolution of spatial Cartan geometries, and we show how these Cartan geometries transform when we make Lorentz transformations, or when we change our minds about what "space" means.
You can also read my recent short essay, The geometric role of symmetry breaking in gravity, also available on my blog.
Thesis: Topological Gauge Theory, Cartan Geometry, and Gravity
Advisor: John C. Baez
My current research is in quantum gravity, geometry, and category theory. Here are some of the subjects I've worked on:
More information can be found on my research page, or you can just take a look at my list of papers.
To see a list of math and physics courses I've taught, click here.
John Baez
Julian Barbour
Aristide Baratin
Steve Carlip
Alissa Crans
Stanley Deser
Jim Dolan
Laurent Freidel
Steffen Gielen
Jeffrey Morton
Andy Randono
Andrew Waldron
Here are some of the things you can find on this site: