Prof. James Sparks

MA, PhD (Cantab)

Pronouns

He / Him

Status

Academic Faculty

Professor of Mathematical Physics
Fellow, Oriel College

+44 1865 273534

Contact form

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~math0391/index.html

ORCID iD

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3699-5225

Research groups

Mathematical Physics

Address

Mathematical Institute
University of Oxford
Andrew Wiles Building
Radcliffe Observatory Quarter
Woodstock Road
Oxford
OX2 6GG

Major / recent publications

My publications may be found on SPIRES.

Recent publications

Toric gravitational instantons in gauged supergravity

Benetti Genolini, P Gauntlett, J Jiao, Y Luscher, A Sparks, J Physical Review D volume 111 (24 Feb 2025)

Localization of the free energy in supergravity

Benetti Genolini, P Gauntlett, J Jiao, Y Lüscher, A Sparks, J Physical Review Letters volume 133 (30 Sep 2024)

Matrix models from black hole geometries

Boido, A Luscher, A Sparks, J Journal of High Energy Physics volume 2024 issue 5 (17 May 2024)

Localization and attraction

Gauntlett, J Benetti Genolini, P Jiao, Y Lüscher, A Sparks, J Journal of High Energy Physics volume 2024 (14 May 2024)

Equivariant localization for AdS/CFT

Genolini, P Gauntlett, J Sparks, J Journal of High Energy Physics volume 2024 issue 2 (01 Feb 2024)

Research interests

Mathematical physics, theoretical physics, geometry. More specifically I work on supersymmetric field theories, supergravity, and the how these are related via the AdS/CFT correspondence. I'm also interested in geometric structures that arise in string theory and theoretical physics more broadly, notably special holonomy manifolds, Sasaki-Einstein manifolds, generalized geometry. Over the last couple of years I've developed the theory of equivariant localization in supergravity.

Highlighted publications

Accelerating black holes and spinning spindles

Ferrero, P Gauntlett, J Perez Ipina, J Martelli, D Sparks, J Physical Review D volume 104 (04 Aug 2021)

Localization of the action in AdS/CFT

Pietro Juan, P Sparks, J Journal of High Energy Physics volume 2019 issue 10 (25 Oct 2019)

A geometric dual of c-extremization

Couzens, C Gauntlett, J Martelli, D Sparks, J Journal of High Energy Physics volume 2019 issue 1 (29 Jan 2019)

The gravity dual of supersymmetric gauge theories on a squashed three-sphere

Martelli, D Passias, A Sparks, J Nuclear Physics B volume 864 issue 3 840-868 (21 Nov 2012)

Sasaki-Einstein manifolds and volume minimisation

Martelli, D Sparks, J Yau, S Communications in Mathematical Physics volume 280 issue 3 611-673 (01 Jun 2008)

Gauge theories from toric geometry and brane tilings

Franco, S Hanany, A Martelli, D Sparks, J Vegh, D Wecht, B Journal of High Energy Physics issue 1 3295-3334 (10 Apr 2006)

Sasaki-Einstein metrics on S^2 x S^3

Sparks, J D. Martelli D. Waldram J.P. Gauntlett Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics volume 8 issue 4 711-734 (Aug 2004)

Teaching

I am on sabbatical leave in 2025/26. I have previously lectured Prelims Dynamics, Part A Quantum Theory, Part B Classical Mechanics and Part B Electromagnetism. Lecture material may be found on my personal webpage, via the link on the left.