# Nicholas Manton

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Nicholas_Manton
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Nicholas_Manton.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Manton
> Source revision: 1332145265
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

**Nicholas Stephen Manton** (born 2 October 1952 in the [City of Westminster](/source/City_of_Westminster))[2] is a British [mathematical physicist](/source/Mathematical_physicist). He is a Professor of Mathematical Physics at the [Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics](/source/Faculty_of_Mathematics,_University_of_Cambridge) of the [University of Cambridge](/source/University_of_Cambridge) and a fellow of [St John's College](/source/St_John's_College,_Cambridge).[3][4]

## Education

Manton earned his PhD from the [University of Cambridge](/source/University_of_Cambridge) in 1978, under the supervision of Peter Goddard. His thesis was entitled *Magnetic Monopoles and Other Extended Objects in Field Theory*.[1]

## Research

Manton has made contributions to the theory of [soliton](/source/Soliton)-like particles in two and three dimensions. He calculated the forces between static and moving [monopoles](/source/Magnetic_monopole) and vortices in [gauge theories](/source/Gauge_theory), leading to the geometrical idea of *[moduli space](/source/Moduli_space)* dynamics. This has been applied to the [classical](/source/Classical_mechanics), [quantum](/source/Quantum_mechanics) and [statistical mechanics](/source/Statistical_mechanics) of solitons. He has also developed the theory of [skyrmions](/source/Skyrmions) as a soliton model of [atomic nuclei](/source/Atomic_nucleus).

He discovered the unstable *[sphaleron](/source/Sphaleron)* solution in the [electroweak sector](/source/Electroweak_interaction) of the [Standard Model](/source/Standard_Model) of [particle physics](/source/Particle_physics). The [Higgs field](/source/Higgs_field) is topologically [twisted](/source/Screw_theory#Twist) within a sphaleron. The sphaleron defines an energy scale for [baryon](/source/Baryon_number) and [lepton number](/source/Lepton_number) violation in the early universe — an energy scale within the range of the [Large Hadron Collider](/source/Large_Hadron_Collider). His other work includes the construction of [type I supergravity](/source/Type_I_supergravity), a 10-dimensional [supergravity](/source/Supergravity) theory with [Yang–Mills fields](/source/Yang%E2%80%93Mills_theory), which is also a low-energy limit of [superstring theory](/source/Superstring_theory).[3]

## Awards and honours

Manton was elected a [Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1996](/source/List_of_Fellows_of_the_Royal_Society_elected_in_1996).[3]

## Publications

- *Topological Solitons (Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics)*, by N. Manton and [P. Sutcliffe](/source/Paul_Sutcliffe) (Cambridge University Press, 2004) ISBN 978-0521838368.
- *The Physical World: An Inspirational Tour of Fundamental Physics*, by M. Manton and N. Mee (Oxford University Press, 2017) ISBN 978-0198795933.
- *Skyrmions - A Theory Of Nuclei*, by N. Manton (World Scientific, 2022) ISBN 978-1800612471.

## References

1. [Autobiographical Memoir](http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/nsm10/NSMbioV2.pdf), p.7

1. ["Nicholas Manton"](https://royalsociety.org/people/nicholas-manton-11882). London: [Royal Society](/source/Royal_Society) One or more of the preceding sentences may incorporate text from the royalsociety.org website where "all text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License](/source/Creative_Commons_license)." ["Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies"](https://royalsociety.org/about-us/terms-conditions-policies/). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20160220093712/https://royalsociety.org/about-us/terms-conditions-policies/) February 20, 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2016-03-09.

1. [Professor Nicholas Manton](http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/people/n.s.manton/), University of Cambridge, retrieved 2016-03-10.

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Nicholas Manton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Manton) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Manton?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.