This project will support a postdoc working with the principal investigator on two important and difficult problems of mathematical physics: the stability of atomic and molecular systems and the number of parameters needed to describe a stationary black hole. The first problem concerns the number of electrons that can exist in stable atoms and molecules; the second problem concerns the correctness of the assumption that the mass and the angular momentum together describe a stationary black hole. Mathematical physicists very often use the same or similar ideas to study very small and very large physical systems. This proposal will study just how many electrons can exist in a stable atom or molecule (a very small system governed by the laws of quantum mechanics) and whether the mass and the angular momentum of a stationary black hole determine its structure (a very large system governed by the laws of general relativity).
