Chanachowicz, Mark2008-04-292008-04-292008-04-292008-04-16http://hdl.handle.net/10012/3620In the first two Chapters I outline the theory and background of separation of variables as an ansatz for solving fundamental partial differential equations (pdes) in Mathematical Physics. Two fundamental approaches will be highlighted, and more modern approaches discussed. In Chapter 3 I calculate the general trace-free conformal Killing tensor defined in Euclidean space - from the sum of symmetric tensor products of conformal Killing vectors. In Chapter 4 I determine the subcases with rotational symmetry and recover known examples pertaining to classical rotational coordinates. In Chapter 5 I obtain the induced action of the conformal group on the space of trace-free conformal Killing tensors. In Chapter 6 I use the invariants of trace-free conformal Killing tensors under the action of the conformal group to characterize, up to equivalence, the symmetric R-separable webs in E^3 that permit conformal separation of variables of the fundamental pdes in Mathematical Physics. In Chapter 7 the asymmetric R-separable metrics are obtained via a study of the separability conditions for the conformally invariant Laplace equation.enLaplace equationStaeckel matrixConformal Killing tensorConformal Killing vectorseparabilityDoctoral ThesisPhysics