Tevian Dray (born March 17, 1956) is an American mathematician who has worked in

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

mathematical physics Mathematical physics is the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the de ...

geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

, and both

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

and

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

education. He was elected a Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

in 2010. He has primarily worked in the area of classical general relativity. His research results include confirmation of the existence of solutions of

Einstein's equation In the general theory of relativity, the Einstein field equations (EFE; also known as Einstein's equations) relate the geometry of spacetime to the distribution of matter within it. The equations were published by Albert Einstein in 1915 in th ...

containing

gravitational radiation Gravitational waves are oscillations of the gravitational field that travel through space at the speed of light; they are generated by the relative motion of gravitating masses. They were proposed by Oliver Heaviside in 1893 and then later by ...

, the use of

computer algebra In mathematics and computer science, computer algebra, also called symbolic computation or algebraic computation, is a scientific area that refers to the study and development of algorithms and software for manipulating expression (mathematics), ...

to classify exact solutions of Einstein's equation, an analysis of a class of gravitational shock waves (including one of the few known exact 2-body solutions in general relativity), and the study of

signature A signature (; from , "to sign") is a depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. Signatures are often, but not always, Handwriting, handwritt ...

change, a possible model for the

Big Bang The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including th ...

. More recently, his work has focused on applications of the

octonions In mathematics, the octonions are a normed division algebra over the real numbers, a kind of hypercomplex number system. The octonions are usually represented by the capital letter O, using boldface or blackboard bold \mathbb O. Octonions have ...

to the theory of fundamental particles. He was a graduate student under Rainer K. Sachs at

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

, where he received his Ph.D. in 1981, although much of his dissertation research was done in collaboration with

Abhay Ashtekar Abhay Vasant Ashtekar (born 5 July 1949) is an Indian theoretical physicist who created Ashtekar variables and is one of the founders of loop quantum gravity and its subfield loop quantum cosmology. Ashtekar has also written a number of descr ...

. The context of his dissertation, titled ''The Asymptotic Structure of a Family of Einstein-Maxwell Solutions'' focused on families of

spacetimes In physics, spacetime, also called the space-time continuum, is a mathematical model that fuses the three-dimensional space, three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional continuum (measurement), continu ...

which describe accelerating black holes, and which contain gravitational radiation. This demonstrated the existence of exact radiating solutions to the Einstein field equations.
He is currently a professor of mathematics at

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctor ...

. In addition to his ongoing work in mathematical physics, he has made significant contributions in science education, where he directs the Vector Calculus Bridge Project, an attempt to teach vector calculus the way it is used by scientists and engineers, and is part of the development team of the Paradigms Project, a complete restructuring of the undergraduate physics major around several core "paradigms". He has written a book on special relativity and a sequel on general relativity using differential forms, and is coauthor of ''

The Geometry of the Octonions ''The Geometry of the Octonions'' is a mathematics book on the octonions, a system of numbers generalizing the complex numbers and quaternions, presenting its material at a level suitable for undergraduate mathematics students. It was written b ...

'', released in 2015.Reviews of ''The Geometry of the Octonions'': * * * In 2017 he received a Deborah and Franklin Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics.

Bibliography

* * * * * (2012) Tevian Dray, ''The Geometry of Special Relativity'' (

A K Peters A K Peters, Ltd. was a publisher of scientific and technical books, specializing in mathematics and in computer graphics, robotics, and other fields of computer science. They published the journals '' Experimental Mathematics'' and the '' Journal ...

CRC Press The CRC Press, LLC is an American publishing group that specializes in producing technical books. Many of their books relate to engineering, science and mathematics. Their scope also includes books on business, forensics and information technol ...

) * (2014) Tevian Dray, ''Differential Forms and The Geometry of General Relativity'' (

) * (2015) Tevian Dray and Corinne A. Manogue, ''

'' (

World Scientific World Scientific Publishing is an academic publisher of scientific, technical, and medical books and journals headquartered in Singapore. The company was founded in 1981. It publishes about 600 books annually, with more than 170 journals in var ...

)

References

External links

Tevian Dray's home page

Vector Calculus Bridge Project

Paradigms Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dray, Tevian 1956 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American relativity theorists Oregon State University faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Historical treatment of octonions