CRM-Fields-PIMS Prize Lecture: Niky Kamran
- Date: 04/07/2014
University of British Columbia
General Relativity, Differential Geometry and Differential Equations; Stories From a Successful Menage-a-trois
It is well known that Einstein's general theory of relativity provides a geometrical description of gravity in terms of space-time curvature. Einstein's theory poses some fascinating and difficult mathematical challenges that have stimulated a great deal of research in geometry and partial differential equations. Important questions include the well-posedness of the evolution problem, the definition of mass and angular momentum, the formation of black holes, the cosmic censorship hypothesis, the linear and non-linear stability of black holes and boundary value problems at conformal infinity arising in the analysis of the AdS/CFT correspondence. I will give a non-technical survey of some significant advances and open problems pertaining to a number of these questions.
Reception at PIMS at 2:30 pm
Lecture in ESB 2012 at 3:00 pm
This Prize recognizes exceptional achievement in the area of mathematical sciences and is considered one of Canada’s top honours in mathematics.
The Prize carries a monetary award of $10,000 and the recipient presents lectures at each of the three awarding institutes.
