Topology and Differential Geometry
Professors Gartside, Heath, and Sparling
Research in analytic topology continues in the broad area of generalized metric spaces. Also, current research is being carried out on topological groups and semi-groups, homogeneity properties of Euclidean sets, and finite-to-one mappings. There are weekly seminars on current research in analytic topology for both faculty and graduate students featuring non-departmental speakers.
This group studies relativity theory and differential geometry, with emphasis on twistor methods. One exciting recent project has been to show how some of the completely integrable systems from inverse scattering theory, such as the Korteweg-de Vries equation and the nonlinear Schrodinger equation, can be derived from the anti-self-dual Yang Mills equations.