Peter BOUWKNEGT

Professor of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics
Australian National University

Adjunct Professor of Physics and Mathematics
University of Adelaide

Member ARC College of Experts (MIC Panel)

FAIP, FAustMS

	Prof PG Bouwknegt Department of Theoretical Physics Research School of Physics and Engineering Australian National University Canberra, ACT 0200, AUSTRALIA	Department of Mathematics Mathematical Sciences Institute Australian National University Canberra, ACT 0200, AUSTRALIA
Office	Le Couteur (Bldg #59), Rm L.3.15	John Dedman (Bldg #27), Rm 2151
	+61 2 6125 2969	+61 2 6125 3720
	+61 2 6125 4676	+61 2 6125 4984
	peter.bouwknegt@anu.edu.au

Prospective Students

Students interested in studying for an Honours or MPhil/PhD degree under my supervision, please familiarize yourself with the following information before contacting me:

Information on the Honours program in Physics and Mathematics.
Information on Honours scholarships in Physics and Mathematics.
Information on the MPhil/PhD program in Physics and Mathematics.
Information on MPhil/PhD scholarships in Physics and Mathematics.

For Summer Research Scholarships, please refer to these pages [Physics, Maths, ANU]. Summer Vacation Scholarships/Projects (Summer Internships) are currently only offered to Australian/New Zealand residents. Due to the large volume of requests I will no longer reply to inquiries from other countries!

For a list of projects that I am offering please look here.

Bibliography

Professor Peter Bouwknegt studied Theoretical Physics and Mathematics at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands, under supervision of Prof G 't Hooft (Nobel Prize for Physics 1999), and at the University of Amsterdam under Prof FA Bais. He obtained his PhD in 1988. He then spent several years as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT, CERN and the University of Southern California before settling in Australia in 1995. He spent almost 10 years at the University of Adelaide, first as an ARC QEII Fellow and subsequently as an ARC Senior Research Fellow, before being appointed Professor of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics at the Australian National University in 2005. He is a recipient of the 2001 medal of the Australian Mathematical Society, and an expert on the mathematical foundations of String Theory and Conformal Field Theory. Since 2009 he serves on the Australian Research Council's College of Experts "Mathematics, Information and Communications Sciences" Panel.

Research Interests

Mathematical physics. Current research interests include the investigation of mathematical aspects of physical theories, in particular quantum field theories. Main expertise is the structure of two-dimensional conformal field theory and their applications in diverse areas such as condensed matter physics, integrable models of statistical mechanics and string theory. Also the mathematical structures underlying string theory and D-branes, using advanced mathematical techniques such as K-theory and gerbes. More mathematical expertise and research interests are in the areas of (infinite dimensional) Lie algebras, representation theory, quantum groups, differential geometry, homological algebra, algebraic geometry and algebraic topology. Recently I've become interested in the Geometric Langlands Program.

News

I was appointed to the ARC College of Experts' "Mathematics, Information and Communication Sciences" (MIC) Panel in 2009.
2007 was a Special Year on Mathematical Physics at the Mathematical Sciences Institute at the ANU.
Launch of the "Mathematical Physics Educational Research Initiative" [ On Campus Article, Poster, Photos]

Teaching 2009 (1st semester)

PHYS4004: Relativistic Quantum Mechanics (Honours) (12 lectures)

Teaching 2009 (2nd semester)

MATH2406: Mathematical Methods II Honours: Partial Differential Equations, Fourier Analysis and Complex Analysis
(Complex Analysis, 12 lectures)
MATH3351: Topics in Mathematical Physics Honours
(Introduction to String Theory, 24 lectures)

Teaching 2010 (1st semester)

MATH3351: Topics in Mathematical Physics Honours
(Quantum Field Theory, 18 lectures)

Recent Papers

P. Bouwknegt: Lectures on Cohomology, T-duality and Generalized Geometry
to appear in the proceedings of the the Summer School "New Paths Towards Quantum Gravity”, Holbæk, Denmark, 10-16 May 2008.
Editors: B. Booß-Bavnbek, G. Esposito and M. Lesch
P. Bouwknegt and V. Mathai: T-Duality as a Duality of Loop Group Bundles
J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 42 (2009) 162001 (8 pages)
[arXiv:0902.4341 [hep-th]]
P. Bouwknegt and A. Pande: Topological T-duality and T-folds
Adv. Theor. Math. Phys., to be published
[arXiv:0810.4374 [hep-th]]
P. Bouwknegt: Introduction to Geometric Representation Theory
Lectures presented at the workshop on "Geometry and Integrability", Melbourne, 6-15 February 2008.
P. Bouwknegt, K. Hannabuss and V. Mathai: C*-algebras in tensor categories
To appear in the proceedings of the conference "Motives, Quantum Field Theory, and Pseudodifferential Operators", Boston, 2-13 June 2008, Clay Mathematics Proceedings, Vol 12
Editors: A. Carey, D. Ellwood, S. Paycha and S. Rosenberg [arXiv:math.QA/0702802]
P. Bouwknegt and D. Ridout: Presentations of Wess-Zumino-Witten fusion rings
Rev. in Math. Phys. 18 (2006) 201-232, [arXiv:hep-th/0602057]
P. Bouwknegt, P. Jarvis and J. Links (guest editors): Hurst-Bracken Festschrift
Reports on Math. Phys. 57 (1) (2006) 1-161 [on-line]

List of all Publications

Hope to see you at one of the following events

Workshop on "New Currents in Geometry in Australia" (IGA, Adelaide, 16-18 November, 2009)
Workshop on "Geometry, Quantum Fields and Strings: Categorical Aspects" (MFO, Oberwolfach, 6-12 June, 2010)
BaisFest: Workshop in Honour of Prof Bais 65th birthday (University of Amsterdam, 14-16 June, 2010)
CareyFest: "Geometry and Quantum Field Theory" (MPI, Bonn, 20-26 June, 2010)
XXIV IUPAP International Congress on Statistical Physics (Statphys24) (Cairns, Australia, 19-23 July, 2010)

Click here for a list of events of relevance to the Mathematical Physics Program at the ANU.

Research Group

[Group Photos]

Research Associate

Ashwin Pande (until March 2009)
Raymond Vozzo (July-September 2009)

Current Students

PhD:
- Josh Garretson
- Andrew Kels (jointly with Vladimir Bazhanov)
- Rishni Ratnam (jointly with Alan Carey)
MPhil:
- Madeleine Smith
  Thesis: Tachyon condensation in open string field theory and the βγ conformal field theory
Honours:
- Matthew Magill
  Thesis: Courant Algebroids
ASC:
- Lerh Low
PhB mentor of:
- Justin Yap (started 2006)
- James Taylor (started 2007)
- Louisa Osborne (started 2008)

Past Students

PhD:
- Peter Dawson
  Thesis: Effective actions and charges of D-branes in curved space-time
- David Ridout
  Thesis: D-Brane Charge Groups and Fusion Rings in Wess-Zumino-Witten Models [pdf]
- Peggy Kao
  Thesis: T-duality and Poisson-Lie T-duality in Generalized Geometry [pdf]
MPhil:
- David Botman
  Thesis: Spin Foam Quantization of 2D Supergravity
Honours:
- Nick Halmagyi
  Thesis: Polynomial realizations of finite dimensional Lie algebras: with applications to quasiparticles in 2D quantum conformal field theory
- Kristian Kennaway
  Thesis: BPS states in String Theory
- David Tellis
  Thesis: Integrable structures in Statistical Mechanics and Field Theory
- Peggy Kao
  Thesis: Black Hole Thermodynamics and String Theory
- David Roberts
  Thesis: T-duality in String Theory
- Man Chung Fung
  Thesis: Generalized complex geometry and geometric quantization
- Kimberley Heenan
  Thesis: Topological Quantum Computation and Conformal Field Theory
Exchange students
- Sophie Maire, University of Neuchatel (Aug 2007 - Mar 2008)
  Thesis: Higher loop beta functions and Buscher rules for bosonic string theory [pdf]
- Yves Barmaz, ETH Zurich (Sep 2007 - Feb 2008)
  Thesis: Global aspects of T-duality [pdf]
Summer Students (2007/2008)
- Kirill Talanine (Dec 2007 - Feb 2008)

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