Stephen Fulling -- Mathematical Physics

Other tenure-track faculty in the TAMU math department who might be classed broadly as "mathematical physicists" include Peter Kuchment, Francis Narcowich, Guy Battle, Philip Yasskin, Alex Poltoratski, Andrew Comech, Gregory Berkolaiko, Dean Baskin, Boris Hanin, Junehyuk Jung, Eric Rowell, and Yaroslav and Mariya Vorobets. (Explore their web pages.) I am the only one with a joint appointment in the physics department, my degrees are in physics, and I (sometimes) have funding from the physics division of NSF. As a physicist, my interests are in quantum theory, general relativity, and their areas of overlap. As a mathematician, I'm concerned with linear partial differential equations as they apply to physical problems in modern ramifications of familiar ways: the spectral theory and asymptotics of differential operators. In the past two decades I have been concerned primarily with two related topics: (1) Semiclassical approximations: how solutions of PDEs are related to (sometimes constructible from) the orbits of associated systems of ODEs (e.g., wave functions to classical mechanics, or wave optics to ray optics). (2) Quantum vacuum (Casimir) energy associated with the zero-point oscillations of the normal modes of a field. I have worked with quite a few graduate and undergraduate students from either or both departments.

Please examine /~fulling/ -- especially

the list of student theses at the bottom,
the record of the Workshop on Semiclassical Approximation and Vacuum Energy at the top,
the record of an Oklahoma-Texas-Louisiana quantum vacuum workshop
Undergraduate talk on the WKB ceiling problem

Last updated Mon 11 Mar 2019