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

+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

Entropy functions for accelerating black holes

Boido, A Gauntlett, J Martelli, D Sparks, J Physical Review Letters volume 130 (28 Feb 2023)

M5-branes wrapped on four-dimensional orbifolds

Sparks, J Gauntlett, J Fry, J Cheung, M Journal of High Energy Physics volume 2022 (05 Aug 2022)

Multicharge accelerating black holes and spinning spindles

Ferrero, P Martelli, D Inglese, M Sparks, J Physical Review D: Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology volume 105 (01 Jun 2022)

Supersymmetric spindles

Ferrero, P Gauntlett, J Sparks, J Journal of High Energy Physics volume 2022 issue 2022 (20 Jan 2022)

M5-branes wrapped on a spindle

Ferrero, P Gauntlett, J Martelli, D Sparks, J Journal of High Energy Physics volume 2021 issue 11 (02 Oct 2021)

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.