Dr Jan Gutowski
Telephone: +44 020 7848 2219
Email: jan.gutowski@kcl.ac.uk
Office: S4.22, Strand Building, Strand Campus
Title: STFC Advanced Fellow in Theoretical Physics
Personal Website
Biography
Jan Gutowski has been a STFC advanced fellow in Theoretical Physics in the Department of Mathematics since October 2011.
He read mathematics at Keble College, Oxford and graduated with a BA in 1996. He then did Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at DAMTP, Cambridge. This was followed by a PhD at DAMTP, under the supervision of Professor George Papadopoulos, on the geometry of black hole moduli spaces, and geometric structures in string theory.
He has held postdoctoral positions in the Department of Physics, Queen Mary University of London, the Mathematical Institute, Oxford and the Department of Mathematics at King's College London.
He was a fixed-term lecturer at DAMTP Cambridge, where he taught Part 1B Natural Sciences Tripos Mathematical Methods, and a Part III course on Symmetry in Particle Physics. He is currently teaching the MSc course “Manifolds” at KCL.
Research Interests
Dr Jan Gutowski's research is primarily in classifications of supergravity solutions. As supergravity theories describe the low-energy limit of string theory/M-theory, a better understanding of the solutions of supergravity theories is required. Jan has worked on a number of projects constructing classifications of supersymmetric solutions of a number of supergravity theories, both in low (D=4,5) and in higher (D=10,11) dimensions.
These classifications are constructive, i.e. they provide algorithms for finding new solutions, such as new black holes. Examples of these are new asymptotically Anti-de-Sitter black holes in five dimensions, and new, asymptotically flat "black Saturn" solutions, consisting of an arbitrary number of concentric black rings with a black hole in the middle. Black hole uniqueness theorems can also be constructed using related techniques. In a number of cases, it is also possible to prove non-existence theorems, for example, he has worked on proofs that there are no solutions preserving 31/32 of the supersymmetry in D=11 supergravity, and also no solutions preserving 29/32, 30/32 or 31/32 of the supersymmetry in type IIB supergravity in ten dimensions. By expanding on this programme of classification, it will be possible to come to a better understanding of the types of solutions which are of importance in the context of black hole physics and string theory.
Selection of Publications
1) U. Gran, J. B. Gutowski, G. Papadopoulos and D. Roest, N=31, D=11, JHEP 0702 (2007) 043; [hep-th/0610331].
2) U. Gran, J. B. Gutowski and G. Papadopoulos, The Spinorial Geometry of Supersymmetric IIB backgrounds, Class. Quant. Grav. 22 (2005) 2453; [hep-th/0501177].
3) J. P. Gauntlett, J. B. Gutowski, Concentric Black Rings, Phys. Rev. D71 (2005) 025013; [hep-th/0408010].
4) J. B. Gutowski and H. S. Reall, General Supersymmetric AdS5 Black Holes, JHEP 0404 (2004) 048; [hep-th/0401129].