Dr Derek Harland
- Position: Associate Professor in Geometry
- Areas of expertise: topological solitons; gauge theory; monopoles; instantons; skyrmions.
- Email: D.G.Harland@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 5152
- Location: 8.06 School of Mathematics
- Website: Geometry and Analysis research group | Researchgate | ORCID
Profile
I gained a PhD under the supervision of Richard Ward at Durham University in 2008. I was awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship in 2012. After spending time in Hannover, Durham, and Loughborough I settled into my current position at the University of Leeds in 2013.
Responsibilities
- Head of Pure Mathematics
Research interests
In theoretical physics and in differential geometry one often encounters the problem finding minima of an 'energy functional' defined over an infinite-dimensional configuration space. Typically the configuration space might be a space of maps between manifolds, or a space of connections on and sections of a vector bundle. The study of such critical points may provide non-trivial information about the underlying manifolds and the physics involved. Three systems I am currently interested in are the Yang-Mills-Higgs, Yang-Mills and Skyrme energy functionals, whose critical points are called 'monopoles', 'instantons' and 'skyrmions' respectively.
Research groups and institutes
- Pure Mathematics