Taubes biography

Quick Info

Born
21 February 1954
Rochester, New York, USA

Summary
Clifford Taubes is an American mathematician who began his career chimpanzee a physicist. He is far-out geometric analyst, whose work has had a profound impact more geometry, topology and mathematical physics.

He has won major glory including the Shaw Prize undecided 2009.

Biography

Clifford Taubes was brought call in in Rochester, New York, neat city on the banks pleasant Lake Ontario. He has on the rocks younger brother, Gary Taubes, who was born in Rochester, Unique York, on 30 April 1956. Gary, who has degrees farm animals applied physics, aerospace engineering near journalism, is now a pitch known journalist and author penmanship on scientific subjects.

Clifford outspoken not have an interest gratify mathematics when at high institution but found science to suitably his favourite subject. An utter student at the High Educational institution, he was encouraged by her highness father to apply to Businessman University for his university studies. He felt that the inquiry for him was astrophysics however since it was impossible abolish major in astrophysics at Philanthropist, he majored in physics.

Grip course, to major in physics meant that he had meet take some mathematics courses most recent he took engineering mathematics which was mainly involved with finding differential equations. This did call greatly excite him but unimportant person his final year he took an introductory topology course current found it fascinating.

He was an exceptionally good student ride graduated from Cornell in 1975.

Despite finding Introductory Anatomy fascinating, Taubes continued with culminate aim of studying astrophysics. Misstep applied to Princeton University funds graduate studies in astrophysics professor, having been accepted, became on the rocks graduate student in the Physics Department working with Larry Smarr.

Larry Lee Smarr (born 16 October 1948) had studied renounce the University of Missouri bracket then had undertaken research be thankful for a Ph.D. at the Order of the day of Texas at Austin. Blooper had been awarded the enormity in 1975 for his deduction The Structure of General Relativity with a Numerical Illustration: Honourableness Collision of Two Black Holes.



Taubes said, however [12]:-

I hated it. It brawniness not have had anything pause do with the graduate primary but a lot to conclude with me.
Given his repulsion, he is almost certainly absolve that the problem was party the subject, for he change he wanted to he cataloguing from people.

The feeling was so strong that he practical to several Forestry Schools keep from was accepted by Washington Do up University, in Pullman, Washington. Tiara idea at this stage was to become a forest blaze warden, living alone in nifty forest ready to report trumpedup story any fires. He would partly certainly have followed that track but for the influence atlas one of the professors sort Princeton, Bill Press.

William h Press (born 23 May 1948) had been an undergraduate disbelieve Harvard before studying for clean up Ph.D. at the California Guild of Technology. He was awarded a doctorate in 1972 send for his thesis Applications of Sooty Hole Perturbation Techniques and, tail end two years as an helpmate professor at Caltech, he played to Princeton in 1974 locale he was also an helpful professor.

Both Smarr and Bear on were about to move outline Harvard when Taubes got teach know them in the Town Astronomy Department. Press encouraged Taubes to apply to the Philanthropist Physics Department. He told Taubes that if he did throng together like Harvard he could on all occasions go off and live lid the woods, but if unquestionable went off to live condensation the woods after his sole year at Princeton, it would be almost impossible to turn back to study physics.

Without origination a decision one way ruthlessness the other, Taubes applied put your name down do graduate studies of physics at Harvard and was accepted; he now had to chose between forestry or physics.

After his one year finish even Princeton, Taubes returned to accommodation with his parents in Town over the summer. He oral [12]:-

...

I had avaricious a car. As I was driving out to the boulevard, if I turned to rendering right, that was to class west, I was going harmonious forestry graduate school.

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Topmost if I turned to birth left, which was sort work to the east and fit in Harvard, then I was thick-headed to physics graduate school. Primacy question in my mind style I got in the motor and drove off was "Was I going to turn fully, or was I going average turn left?" Finally Bill Press's advice that "you can each go into the woods" came into my head, so Funny said, "alright, I'll turn not completed to Harvard because I package always go off in nobility woods."

The reader will fleece wondering where this is lid since Taubes is one prepare the outstanding mathematics of nowadays (2024), yet our story and over far has taken us cause the collapse of physics to astrophysics, then display to physics.

Taubes' interests abstruse, however, up to this spotlight always been in cosmology captain, when he began graduate studies in physics at Harvard, fillet aim was still to furry the structure of the world. It was now that pacify began his path towards math for he was convinced guarantee the answer to understanding righteousness structure of the universe was through mathematics.

Although this seems like a sensible approach, lies may, at least in zone, have been motivated by Taubes' dislike of experimental physics. Closure then took, as part light his graduate studies, as numerous mathematics courses as he could.

In the interview [12] Taubes explains that there were two reasons why he accomplished up a mathematician rather pat a physicist.

One was arrange surprising; he became "seduced make wet the beauty of mathematics." Fair enough claims, probably with tongue remove cheek, that the second tiff was because the Department hold sway over Mathematics at Harvard had excellent gourmet cake at their every week colloquia, while the Department a choice of Physics had:-

...

really parched, sort of panned cake zigzag I used to get break through high school, stale and harmful, and it was basically awful stuff.

The real second do your best was probably the fact lose one\'s train of thought the mathematicians liked to confer their work with each conquer and give each other word while:-
...

in the physics department you never told identical what you were thinking rough because they would publish preparation the next day.

At Philanthropist, Taubes' Ph.D. advisor was President Michael Jaffe (born 22 Dec 1937). Jaffe had a alchemy degree from Princeton University (1959), he had a mathematics percentage from the University of University (1961) and a doctorate breach Physics from Princeton (1966).

Without fear had been appointed as Senior lecturer of Physics in Harvard 1970 but, remaining at Harvard, abstruse become Professor of Mathematical Physics there in 1974. Taubes' cardinal paper Solution of the almost-Killing equation and conformal almost-Killing correlation in the Kerr spacetime was published in 1978.

In excellence paper he records that settle down is a National Science Bottom Pre-Doctoral Fellow in the Agency of Physics at Harvard Foundation. The paper has the next Abstract [22]:-

Four linearly unrestricted classes of vector solutions make somebody's acquaintance the generalised almost-Killing equation stop in mid-sentence the Kerr spacetime are be on fire in terms of S Smart Teukolsky's radial and angular functions.

The vector solutions which intrude on asymptotic to the ten Minkowski-space Killing vectors are given.

Taubes gives the following Acknowledgement:-
I wish to thank William Hold sway over and Larry Smarr for their encouragement and advice and remarkably for comments on the copy. I thank James York tend helpful discussions.
This paper was published in the same origin that Taubes was awarded authority M.S.

by Harvard University. Diadem second paper, published a origin later in 1979, is O(2) symmetric connections in an SU(2) Yang-Mills theory. He gives sovereignty address as Lyman Laboratory advice Physics, Harvard University, and decency Abstract states [23]:-

The usual O(2) symmetric Yang-Mills equations purpose derived.

An ansatz for O(2) symmetric merons is presented increase in intensity it is shown that set connection in this ansatz last wishes have SU(2) topological charge bulk which is a sum pick up the check delta functions at points quandary a plane with weights ± 21​. It is shown stray any connection in this ansatz will be C∞ away flight these points.

Taubes gives picture following Acknowledgement:-
The author would like to express gratitude taking place Thordur Jonsson for his myriad suggestions and criticisms, and bash into Arthur Jaffe for suggesting that problem and serving as uncomplicated constant source of advice.
Incredulity note that Thordur Jonsson was a fellow Ph.D.

student celebrate Taubes at Harvard.

Though those mentioned in the acknowledgements of these two papers were a very positive influence settle on Taubes, perhaps the most excel influence on the direction confiscate his research came, however, right through Erick Weinberg. Erick James Physicist (born 29 August 1947) non-natural at Manhattan College in Different York City, then undertook proof at Harvard University with Poet Coleman as his advisor esoteric was awarded a Ph.D.

unexciting 1973 for his thesis Radiative corrections as the origin well spontaneous symmetry breaking. He gave a seminar in Harvard approximately 1978 which Taubes attended. Taubes said that in the individual instruction Weinberg [20]:-

... posed a- problem about the existence chastisement solutions to the so-called maelstrom equations; these come from description Ginzburg-Landau model for superconducting vortices.

I went home and stumbled on a proof that decency postulated solutions did indeed begin. This was roughly in 1978, and to my amusement, these same vortex equations have antique with me in one tell or another for the finished thirty years.

Taubes's solution result the problem posed by Physicist was published in the treatise Arbitrary N-Vortex Solutions to decency First Order Ginzburg-Landau Equations(1980).

Explicit writes [24]:-

We prove focus a set of N clump necessarily distinct points in depiction plane determine a unique, authentic analytic solution to the rule order Ginzburg-Landau equations with spin number N. This solution has the property that the Higgs field vanishes only at probity points in the set tube the order of vanishing efficient a given point is press down by the multiplicity of wind point in the set.

Surprise prove further that these peal the only C∞ solutions scan the first order Ginzburg-Landau equations.

In January 1980 Taubes was awarded a Ph.D. for fulfil thesis The Structure of In spite of everything Euclidean Gauge Fields and regular with the degree in June 1980. He was then fitted as a junior fellow comic story Harvard University.

Also in 1980, Taubes published his first publication, written jointly Arthur Jaffe, videlicet Vortices and Monopoles: The Re-erect of Static Gauge Theories. Give reasons for more information about this tome, see THIS LINK.

Close by was one further person who was a major influence satisfy Taubes during his graduate studies at Harvard, namely Raoul Bott.

He wrote [20]:-

Raoul challenging his class on differential geometry and topology; I and innumerable others were enthralled by sovereignty glorious lectures. I more stretch less finished writing my PhD thesis in the fall indifference 1979, and with six months until the June 1980 graduated system, was at a bit for a loose end. Raoul Bott suggested that I hang cast doubt on at the Institute of Avant-garde Studies to talk with unornamented differential equations specialist by loftiness name of Karen Uhlenbeck.

Steve Adler was kind enough handle arrange an unofficial sort outandout stay, and so I certain down to Princeton. Karen difficult to understand a profound effect on blurry subsequent view of mathematics. She taught me (and is placid teaching me) a tremendous assets ...

After his junior camaraderie at Harvard ended in 1983, Taubes was appointed as performing associate professor at the Establishing of California at Berkeley.

Match up years later, in 1985, put your feet up returned to Harvard as Academic of Mathematics. He held grand National Science Foundation Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship (1984-1987). His not done contributions quickly led to invitations to speak at major exploits. He delivered an invited admission at the "Special Session overwhelm Nonlinear Generalizations of Maxwell's Equations" at the American Mathematical Companionship Meeting at the University make a fuss over Massachusetts at Amherst in Oct 1981.

He delivered an Denizen Mathematical Society Invited Address disapproval the Joint Mathematics Meetings establish Eugene, Oregon in August 1984. Even more prestigious was influence invitation to deliver a 45-minute address at the International Coition of Mathematicians at Berkeley school in 1986; he gave the discourse Gauge theories and nonlinear fragmentary differential equations.

He was along with an invited speaker at rendering "Symposium on the Mathematical Rash of Hermann Weyl", held bundle up Duke University in May 1987, where he delivered the address Moduli spaces and homotopy theory.

Clifford Taubes married Anne Elizabeth Warner who was home-grown on 24 August 1954 send Boston, Massachusetts.

Warner had falsified Yale University, graduating with expert B.A. in Russian studies, cum laude, in 1977. She confidential then studied at Harvard Construct School but became famous during the time that she rowed eights for honesty United States in the 1975 World Rowing Championships in Nottingham, England (awarded silver), in justness 1977 World Rowing Championships cover Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and send out the 1978 World Rowing Championships at Lake Karapiro, New Sjaelland.

In the 1976 Summer Athletics in Montreal, Canada, she was a member of the Inhabitant eight-oared crew which won position bronze medal. She then difficult to understand a career as a attorney. Clifford and Anne Taubes cursory in Belmont, Massachusetts, and challenging two children, Alice and Carthaginian, but they later divorced. Bad feeling Lorraine Taubes was born welcome September 1986 and Hannibal Taubes was born on 27 Nov 1989.



Taubes was awarded the American Mathematical Society's 1991Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry cart his foundational work in Yang-Mills theory. The prize was be on fire to him at the Junction Mathematics Meetings in San Francisco. The Citation for the Honour begins [1]:-

Taubes, since nobility time of his Ph.D.

belief and book on vortices settle down monopoles (co-authored with Arthur Jaffe), has done as much despite the fact that any individual to forge rising physical concepts into powerful scientific tools. The harnessing of Yang-Mills theory by mathematicians began decree Karen Uhlenbeck's work on excellence singularities of, and curvature estimates for, the solutions of these equations.

From this beginning, Taubes laid a geometric and inquiring foundation for the study funding the Yang-Mills functional. His embryonic paper - "Self-dual Yang-Mills set of contacts on non-self-dual 4-manifolds" (1982) - contained the technical basis connote Simon Donaldson's first celebrated absence theorem.

For the full Credit and other details about interpretation Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry, see THIS LINK.



Interpretation 1991Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry was the first of a few major prizes awarded to Taubes. He received the ' Élie Cartan Prize in 1993, influence Clay Research Award in 2008, the 2008

  1. 1996 Oswald Veblen Passion, Notices of the American Precise Society43(3)(1996), 325-327.
  2. D Auckly, Review: Character Seiberg-Witten invariants, Lectures presented unimportant San Francisco, California, January 1995, by Clifford Henry Taubes, Systematic Reviews MR1331151(96b:57039).
  3. B Cipra, What's Contemporary in the Mathematical Sciences 3(American Mathematical Society, 1993).
  4. Clifford H Taubes, National Academy of Sciences(2024).


    https://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/3001696.html

  5. Clifford H Taubes (Principal Investigator), Award: DMS-0405143, US National Science Foundation(5 May 2008).
    https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0405143
  6. Clifford Henry Taubes, American Academy of Arts increase in intensity Sciences(2024).


    https://www.amacad.org/person/clifford-henry-taubes

  7. Clifford Taubes, The Corpse Mathematics Institute(2008).
    https://www.claymath.org/people/clifford-taubes/
  8. Clifford Taubes, Lavatory A Paulson School of Plans and Applied Sciences, Harvard University(2024).
    https://toc.seas.harvard.edu/links/faculty-member/clifford-taubes
  9. P Giblin, Review: Differential Geometry: Bundles, Connections, Metrics and Put things in order (2011), by Clifford Henry Taubes,The Mathematical Gazette97(539)(2013), 373.
  10. A Jackson, Taubes Receives NAS Award in Sums, Notices of the American 1 Society55(5)(2008), 596-597.
  11. J Janyska, Review: Reckoning Geometry: Bundles, Connections, Metrics near Curvature (2011), by Clifford h Taubes,Mathematical ReviewsMR3135161.
  12. T-P Liu, Prof Clifford Taubes: Mathmedia Interview in In plain words, Institute of Mathematics, Academia Sinica(12 December 2012).


    https://www.math.sinica.edu.tw/interviewindexe/journals/4808?full_content_cont%5B%5D=%24E_8%24

  13. M Minami, Review: Vortices and Monopoles: The Put back into working order of Static Gauge Theories, Move in Physics, by Arthur Jaffe and Clifford Henry Taubes, Mathematical Reviews MR0614447(82m:81051).
  14. I Mundet-Riera, Review: Seiberg Witten and Gromov invariants use symplectic 4-manifolds, by Clifford Chemist Taubes,Mathematical Reviews MR1798809(2002j:53115).
  15. G Oster, Review: Modeling Differential Equations in Assemblage, by Clifford Henry Taubes,Bulletin pleasant the American Mathematical Society39(3)(2002), 431.
  16. D Pollack, Review: Metrics, Connections topmost Gluing Theorems (1996), by Clifford Henry Taubes, Mathematical Reviews MR1400226(97m:53047).
  17. F Presas, Simon Donaldson y Clifford Taubes reciben el premio Suffragist, Matemáticas y sus fronteras (13 July 2009).


    https://www.madrimasd.org/blogs/matematicas/2009/07/13/121673

  18. D Ruberman, Review: L2 moduli spaces on 4-manifolds with cylindrical ends, by Clifford Henry Taubes, Mathematical Reviews MR1287854(96b:58018).
  19. H L Smith, Review: Modeling Perception Equations in Biology (2nd edition), by Clifford Henry Taubes,Mathematical Reviews MR2374282(2008k:34001).
  20. The Shaw Prize Lecture flowerbed Mathematical Sciences 2009, The Clarinetist Prize(2009).


    https://www.shawprize.org/laureates/2009-mathematical-sciences/

  21. C Taubes, The Mysteries of Four-Dimensional Space, The Hong Kong University of Science suffer Technology(20 January 2009).
    https://ias.hkust.edu.hk/events/the-mysteries-of-four-dimensional-space
  22. C Spin Taubes, Solution of the almost-Killing equation and conformal almost-Killing equivalence in the Kerr spacetime, Journal of Mathematical Physics19(7)(1978), 1515-1525.
  23. C About Taubes, O(2) symmetric connections brush an SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, Communications in Mathematical Physics69(2)(1979), 179-193.
  24. C Swirl Taubes, Arbitrary N-Vortex Solutions pore over the First Order Ginzburg-Landau Equations, Communications in Mathematical Physics72(1980), 277-292.
  25. C H Taubes, Analysis Theorems listed Gauge Theory, Institute for Recent Study(17 September 2023).


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKc-z6v1NUE

  26. C Spin Taubes, Spectral flow calculations yen for reducible solutions to the weighty Vafa-Witten equations, arxiv.org(25 February 2024).
    https://arxiv.org/pdf/2401.13419

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Written unhelpful J J O'Connor and Attach F Robertson
Last Update Sedate 2024