Jack Gegenberg
(BA Physics, University of Colorado;M.Sc. Physics, University of British Columbia;Ph.D. Mathematics,Simon Fraser University.)

The Gravity Group in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UNB consists of five faculty:
Arundhati Dasgupta
Jack Gegenberg
Viqar Husain
Bob McKellar
Brian Tupper (Professor Emeritus and originator of the group)

Currently, there is a visitor, Saurya Das, from the University of Lethbridge and a postdoctoral fellow, Vardarajan Suneeta, in the group. There are also four Ph.D. students: Andreas Kreienbuhl, Haitao Liu, Jason Leblanc and Benjamin Tippet.

We jointly and independently explore problems in gravity theory, including quantum gravity, string theory and symmetries of the classical Einstein theory of gravity. As well, we explore topics of mutual interest with pure and applied mathematicians in the department.

My research interest is primarily in the area of quantum gravity, specifically, various tractable models of quantum gravity. Such models are either low dimensional - that is with two or three spacetime dimensions - or topological - that is with most or all dynamical degrees of freedom frozen out because of the large symmetry group. These models, though not directly physically realistic, are amenable to quantum or semi-classical analysis, and are constructed so as to bring to the fore important concepts or issues which cannot otherwise be addressed because of the lack of a realistic and consistent quantum gravity theory. Foremost among the issues are questions concerning the microstructure and concommitant thermodynamics of black holes.

My current work involves four more or less distinct investigations: 1. String inspired gravity in three dimensions, especially its implications for the Thurston geometrization conjecture; 2. Polymer or Bohr quantization of low-dimensional gravity; 3. The role of toroidal Lie algebras in membrane theories and in integrable models that generalize conformal field theories; 4. Gravitational Landau models and non-commutative geometry.

Links to Recent Papers:

Quantum Structure of Space Near a Black Hole Horizon

The Fixed Points of RG Flow with a Tachyon

The Generalized Ricci Flow for 3D Manifolds with One Killing Vector

Using 3D Stringy Gravity to Understand the Thurston Conjecture

Can Black Holes Decay to Naked Singularities?

Boundary Dynamics of Higher Dimensional AdS Spacetime

Math 1003 Section 02A Fall 06
Math 2513 Section 02A Fall 06
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