David L Wiltshire

I am a Professor of Theoretical Physics.
Phone: (+64 3) 3695218 Fax: (+64 3) 3642469

Email: David.Wiltshire AT canterbury.ac.nz

My research interests are in general relativity, cosmology and quantum gravity. I am a member of the editorial board of Classical and Quantum Gravity, an IUPAP representative on the committee of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation, and Past President of the New Zealand Institute of Physics.

Amongst the permanent faculty in theoretical physics my research interests most closely intersect with those of Jenni Adams and Chris Gordon.

My research is currently focused on understanding gravitational energy in an inhomogeneous universe: it is my thesis that is the key to understanding the mystery of "dark energy". I have a viable alternative to the standard cosmology, without dark energy, which I have named the timescape cosmology. In the past I have been Principal Investigator on two Marsden grants. I have just graduated my 9th PhD student, and am currently looking for new grad students. Some recent postdocs in our group, who have now moved on, were Teppo Mattsson and Ishwaree Neupane. Emeritus Professor Roy Kerr was an active member of our group until a recent move to Tauranga. We have on-going interactions with Thomas Buchert's group at the Université de Lyon 1, and Matt Visser's group at Victoria University of Wellington.

Note for prospective PhD students

Recent general interest pieces:

Gravitational energy as dark energy

Selected papers:
Baryon acoustic oscillation methods for generic curvature. Application to the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: JCAP 03 (2019) 003;
Lagrangian theory of structure formation in relativistic cosmology. V. Irrotational fluids: Phys. Rev. D 98 (2018) 043507;
Apparent cosmic acceleration from type Ia supernovae: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 472 (2017) 835-851;
What is general relativity?: Phys. Scripta 92 (2017) 053001;
Differential cosmic expansion and the Hubble flow anisotropy: JCAP 06(2016)035;
Defining the frame of minimum nonlinear Hubble expansion variation: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 457 (2016) 3285-3305

Cosmic Clocks, Cosmic Variance and Cosmic Averages, New J. Phys. 9 (2007) 377, Focus on Dark Energy

The Kerr Spacetime: Rotating Black Holes in General Relativity
(Cambridge University Press, 2009)

Kerr Fest - In August, 2004, I organised a Symposium on black holes in astrophysics, general relativity and quantum gravity, in celebration of Professor Roy Kerr's 70th birthday. Five years later, in December 2009, I organised ACGRG5.