245 Beacon Street 428D
Telephone: 617-552-6907
Email: carl.mctague@bc.edu
I study the connection between exotic geometries and chromatic homotopy theory, and what this connection reveals about the surprising relationship between topology and the arithmetic of algebraic curves. Specifically, I am working to uncover higher genus generalizations of elliptic cohomology suggested by the exceptional geometry of the Cayley plane (and categorifying moduli spaces of theta characteristics). I am also working to compute the homotopy type of the string bordism spectrum MO<8> at the prime 3, based on computer-assisted computations of its BP-homology, considered as a Hopf ring. And I am working to formalize (in Coq) and apply machine learning to EHP and Adams spectral sequence calculations. I have also investigated novel uses of curvature in data analysis, pattern formation in cellular automata, as well as computational and geometric aspects of bookbinding and music composition.