Robert Bryant
- Phillip Griffiths Professor of Mathematics
- Professor in the Department of Mathematics
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30-12:00PM, and by appointment
Research Areas and Keywords
Algebra & Combinatorics
Analysis
Computational Mathematics
Geometry: Differential & Algebraic
Mathematical Physics
PDE & Dynamical Systems
Topology
My research concerns problems in the geometric theory of partial differential equations. More specifically, I work on conservation laws for PDE, Finsler geometry, projective geometry, and Riemannian geometry, including calibrations and the theory of holonomy.
Much of my work involves or develops techniques for studying systems of partial differential equations that arise in geometric problems. Because of their built-in invariance properties, these systems often have special features that make them difficult to treat by the standard tools of analysis, and so my approach uses ideas and techniques from the theory of exterior differential systems, a collection of tools for analyzing such PDE systems that treats them in a coordinate-free way, focusing instead on their properties that are invariant under diffeomorphism or other transformations.
I’m particularly interested in geometric structures constrained by natural conditions, such as Riemannian manifolds whose curvature tensor satisfies some identity or that supports some additional geometric structure, such as a parallel differential form or other geometric structures that satisfy some partial integrability conditions and in constructing examples of such geometric structures, such as Finsler metrics with constant flag curvature.
I am also the Director of the Simons Collaboration Special Holonomy in Geometry, Analysis, and Physics, and a considerable focus of my research and that of my students is directed towards problems in this area.
Bryant, R. L. Rigidity and quasi-rigidity of extremal cycles in Hermitian symmetric spaces. Mar. 2001. Open Access Copy
Bryant, R. L. “Calibrated Embeddings in the Special Lagrangian and Coassociative Cases.” Annals of Global Analysis and Geometry, vol. 18, no. 3–4, Dec. 2000, pp. 405–35. Open Access Copy
Bryant, R. “Recent advances in the theory of holonomy.” Asterisque, vol. 266, Dec. 2000, pp. 351–74. Open Access Copy
Bryant, R. L. “Harmonic morphisms with fibers of dimension one.” Communications in Analysis and Geometry, vol. 8, no. 2, Jan. 2000, pp. 219–65. Scopus, doi:10.4310/CAG.2000.v8.n2.a1. Full Text Open Access Copy
Bryant, R. “Élie Cartan and geometric duality.” Journées Élie Cartan 1998 Et 1999, vol. 16, Institut Élie Cartan, 2000, pp. 5–20. Open Access Copy
Bryant, RL. "Calibrated embeddings in the special Lagrangian and coassociative cases." Annals of Global Analysis and Geometry 18.3-4 (2000): 405-435. Open Access Copy
Bryant, R. L., and E. Sharpe. “D-branes and Spinc structures.” Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High Energy Physics, vol. 450, no. 4, Jan. 1999, pp. 353–57. Scopus, doi:10.1016/S0370-2693(99)00161-6. Full Text Open Access Copy
Bryant, R. L. “Some examples of special Lagrangian Tori.” Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, vol. 3, no. 1, Jan. 1999, pp. 83–90. Scopus, doi:10.4310/ATMP.1999.v3.n1.a2. Full Text Open Access Copy
Bryant, R. L. “Projectively flat finsler 2-spheres of constant curvature.” Selecta Mathematica, New Series, vol. 3, no. 2, Jan. 1997, pp. 161–203. Scopus, doi:10.1007/s000290050009. Full Text Open Access Copy
Bryant, Robert L., and Phillip A. Griffiths. “Characteristic cohomology of differential systems. I. General theory.” Journal of the American Mathematical Society, vol. 8, no. 3, American Mathematical Society (AMS), Sept. 1995, pp. 507–507. Crossref, doi:10.1090/s0894-0347-1995-1311820-x. Full Text