Mark Haskins, Professor

My research concerns problems at the intersection between Differential Geometry and Partial Differential Equations, particularly special geometric structures that arise in the context of holonomy in Riemannian geometry.

In Fall 2024 I was the lead organizer of the program Special Geometric Structures and Analysis, at the Simons Laufer Mathematical Institute in Berkeley California. Many of the lectures given at the program are available to watch.

From 2016-2024 I was the Deputy Director of the Simons Collaboration Special Holonomy in Geometry, Analysis, and Physics. My colleague here at Duke, Robert Bryant,  was the Collaboration Director. During the course of the Collaboration we organized over 35 research meetings. Most of the lectures from these meetings are available to watch.

Currently, I am particularly interested in special types of 7-dimensional spaces called G₂-holonomy manifolds, or G₂-manifolds for short. These spaces also arise naturally in modern theoretical physics in the 11-dimensional theory known as M theory. To get from 11 dimensions down to 4 dimensions it is necessary to 'compactify' on a 7-dimensional space and to preserve the maximal degree of (super)symmetry this 7-dimensional space should have G₂-holonomy. In fact, realistic 4-dimensional physics appears to demand singular G₂-holonomy spaces and trying to construct compact singular G₂-holonomy spaces is one of my current research projects.

Manifolds with special holonomy also come equipped with special submanifolds, called calibrated submanifolds, and special connections on auxiliary vector bundles, called generalised instantons. I am particuarly interested in associative and coassociative submanifolds in G₂-holonomy spaces and special Lagrangian submanifolds in Calabi-Yau spaces. In the past I have also studied singular special Lagrangian n-folds.

Recently I have become interested in using geometric flow techniques to try to construct G₂-holonomy manifolds. This has led me to study singularity formation in Laplacian flow and the structure of solitons in Laplacian flow. I have found new types of shrinking , steady and expanding solitons in Laplacian flow.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	187 Physics Building, 120 Science Drive, West Campus, Durham, NC 27708-0320
Email Address:
Web Pages:	https://scholars.duke.edu/person/Mark.Haskins https://www.msri.org/programs/361

Teaching (Spring 2026):

• MATH 621.01, DIFFERENTIAL GEOMETRY Synopsis

  Physics 259, TuTh 10:05 AM-11:20 AM

Education:

Ph.D.

University of Texas, Austin

2000

Keywords:

Differential equations, Elliptic • Einstein manifolds • Geometric analysis • Geometric measure theory • Geometry, Riemannian • Holonomy groups • Parabolic equations and systems • Partial differential equations on manifolds; differential operators

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Haskins, M; Khan, I; Payne, A, Uniqueness of asymptotically conical gradient shrinking solitons in G2-Laplacian flow, Mathematische Annalen, vol. 391 no. 4 (April, 2025), pp. 5033-5116, Springer Science and Business Media LLC [doi]  [abs]
2. Haskins, M; Nordström, J, Cohomogeneity-one solitons in Laplacian flow: local, smoothly-closing and steady solitons (December, 2021)  [abs]
3. FOSCOLO, L; HASKINS, M; NORDSTRÖM, J, Complete noncompact g2-manifolds from asymptotically conical calabi-yau 3-folds, Duke Mathematical Journal, vol. 170 no. 15 (October, 2021), pp. 3323-3416 [doi]  [abs]
4. Foscolo, L; Haskins, M; Nordström, J, Infinitely many new families of complete cohomogeneity one G2-manifolds: G2analogues of the Taub-NUT and Eguchi-Hanson spaces, Journal of the European Mathematical Society, vol. 23 no. 7 (January, 2021), pp. 2153-2220 [doi]  [abs]
5. Foscolo, L; Haskins, M, New G2-holonomy cones and exotic nearly Kahler structures on S6 and S3 x S3, Annals of Mathematics, vol. 185 no. 1 (January, 2017), pp. 59-130 [doi]  [abs]

Recent Grant Support

• Special Holonomy In Geometry, Analysis and Physics, Simons Foundation, 2020/07-2024/06.