The physics research of Tom Lawrence

Welcome to Warped and Broken. This site describes my explorations of how the universe operates at its most fundamental level. I have been developing a body of theory, which I call Covariant Compactification, since 2005. This seeks to show how all the most important features of the universe – the fundamental forces of nature and the way they couple to matter and perhaps the matter itself – are just aspects of the geometry of real, physical dimensions of space and time.

My research focuses on:

The shape of the universe – both the familiar four dimensions of space and time, and additional dimensions:
Warping »
Symmetries of unified field theories and their relation to spacetime:
Breaking »

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About me

I have been passionate about particle physics and relativity since I was a teenager. I studied theoretical physics at the University of Exeter and received my MPhys in 1997. I then joined the High Energy Physics Group at the University of Southampton and researched non-linear realisations under Prof K J Barnes. I was awarded my PhD in 2002. Since then, I have not been attached to any traditional academic institution. My career has moved in other directions, but I have continued to indulge my passion, researching the areas described in these pages whenever I have had the time to do so. I joined an online academic institution, the Ronin Institute, in 2021.

Contact me »

Patreon

If you’d like to support my research and receive updates, you can do so by subscribing to my Patreon page. There are, at the time of writing, three levels of subscription, named after historical patrons of science:

The lowest tier, Medici, is just £4 per month: less than you’d often pay for a single cup of coffee or pint or beer. This provides access to a library of my outputs and notifications of new publications.
The middle tier, al-Ma’mun, at £15 per month, also provides you with commentary on my preprints and journal articles, in language accesible to the general public and an option to be mentioned by name on my YouTube videos.
The top tier, Nobel, is the more exclusive tier, at £100 per month. This additionally entitles you to a monthly chat with me and an option to be named as a supporter on this website and in future research papers.

My recent posts on Patreon include:

A welcome video, telling you about the topics I investigate, my journey in physics research, and the purpose of my Patreon page
An essay, “Reflections on building a conceptual structure” (paid subscription needed to view this)
An article, “Symmetries: nature’s fundamental labeller of matter“

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Recent research outputs

Covariant Compactification: progress towards a Theory Of Everything Fundamental – Part 1 (YouTube)
Symmetries of Field Configurations and No-Go Theorems (preprint)
Covariant Compactification: a Radical Revision of Kaluza-Klein Unification (preprint, now accepted for publication – downloaded over 1,500 times!)
Covariant compactification and unification (presentation – large file)
General Relativity – its beauty, its curves, its rough edges . . . and its lessons for gauge fields (essay-style journal article)
Product manifolds as realisations of general linear symmetries (preprint available here)
Tangent space symmetries in general relativity and teleparallelism (preprint available here)

ResearchGate

See my publications on ResearchGate

Endorsements

Tom Lawrence is a serious mathematical physicist, with an original focus. He has shown he knows the relevant literature well and is technically adept. I am impressed by what he is achieving as an independent researcher.
Malcolm MacCallum, Emeritus Professor at Queen Mary, University of London and former President of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation

In light of challenges that recent astrophysical observations pose to our theories of particles, fields and gravitation, we must review the pillars these theories are based on. This may include looking again at gauge fields and patterns of symmetry breaking. I see Tom’s 2021 and 2022 papers as very important, I would even say seminal, in this regard. These papers are welcome as a guide to a firm mathematical foundation for a better understanding of symmetry breaking in the spacetime of general relativity.
Janilo Santos, Professor (Associate) at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal – Brazil (now retired)

I met Tom at an online conference hosted by the University of Tartu. I was impressed by his deep understanding of the differential geometry of gravity and gauge theory, in the context of unification. I am still more impressed that he has managed to be at the spearhead of research without the conventional support of academia.
Morgan Le Delliou, Professor (Assistant) at Lanzhou University

I met Tom Lawrence at the fourth Hermann Minkowski Conference on Spacetime Physics (Albena, Bulgaria). Among all the participants, he stood out for his particular attention to the main content of the papers, asked very precise and relevant questions, and was highly active in discussing the most complex mathematical aspects. I believe he belongs to a new generation of researchers who are the most original, critical, and forward-thinking.
Victor Borsevici, Emeritus Professor of Republic of Moldova, Doctor Honoris Causa of Independent University of Moldova

I met Tom in the international conference Teleparallel Gravity Workshop 2020. At the end of my talk, he asked me a very sound question related to symmetries. We pursued the exchange after the talk. This was really fruitful, and I found Tom’s point of view and his research of most interest.
Eric Huguet, Professor (Assistant) and Deputy Head of the AstroParticle and Cosmology theory group at University Paris Cité