Prof. James Sparks
MA, PhD (Cantab)
Head of Department
Pronouns
He / Him
Status
Academic Faculty
- Head of Department
- Professor of Mathematical Physics
- Fellow, Oriel College
Research groups
Address
Mathematical Institute
University of Oxford
Andrew Wiles Building
Radcliffe Observatory Quarter
Woodstock Road
Oxford
OX2 6GG
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
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) Localizing wrapped M5-branes and gravitational blocks
Benetti Genolini, P Gauntlett, J Sparks, J Physical Review D volume 108 issue 10 (08 Nov 2023) Equivariant localization in supergravity
Benetti Genolini, P Gauntlett, J Sparks, J Physical Review Letters volume 131 issue 12 (18 Sep 2023) 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, and generalized geometry.
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
In 2021/22 I will be lecturing Part A Quantum Theory and Part B Electromagnetism. I have previously lectured Prelims Dynamics and Part B Classical Mechanics. Lecture material may be found on my personal webpage, via the link on the left.