# Seminars & Events for Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

September 26, 2008
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### Kähler Ricci flow on Del Pezzo surfaces
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar
Speaker: Bing Wang, Princeton University
Location:
Fine Hall 314
October 3, 2008
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### A new example with positive sectional curvature
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

I will discuss the construction of a new example with positive sectional curvature on a 7-dimensional manifold homeomorphic to the unit tangent bundle of the 4-sphere. The metric is of Kaluza Klein type on an orbifold principle bundle over the 4-sphere and is closely related to the geometry of self dual Einstein and 3- Sasakian metrics.

Speaker: Wolfgang Ziller, University of Pennsylvania
Location:
Fine Hall 314
October 10, 2008
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### The volume of a differentiable stack
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

We extend to the setting of Lie groupoids the notion of the cardinality of a finite groupoid (a rational number, equal to the Euler characteristic of the correspondingdiscrete orbifold). Since this quantity is an invariant under equivalence of groupoids, we call it the volume of the associatedstack rather than of the groupoid itself. Since there is no natural measure in the smooth case like the counting measure in the discrete case, we need extra data to define the volume. This data has the form of an invariant section of a naturalline bundle over the stack. Sections of a square root of this line bundle constitute an "intrinsic Hilbert space'' of the stack. The talk will not require prior knowledge of groupoids or stacks.

Speaker: Alan Weinstein, University of California, Berkeley
Location:
Fine Hall 314
October 17, 2008
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### The space of positive scalar curvature metrics on the three-sphere
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

In this talk we will discuss a proof of the path-connectedness of the space of positive scalar curvature metrics on the three-sphere. The proof uses the Ricci flow with surgery and the connected sum construction of Gromov and Lawson. The work of Perelman on Hamilton's Ricci flow is fundamental.

Speaker: Fernando Coda Marques, Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada, Brasil
Location:
Fine Hall 314
November 7, 2008
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### The singular set of $C^{1}$ smooth surfaces in the Heisenberg group
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar
Speaker: Jih-Hsin Cheng, Academica Sinica Taipei
Location:
Fine Hall 314
November 14, 2008
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### Harmonic Functions, Entropy, and a Characterization of the Hyperbolic Space
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

Complete Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature have been well studied. Riemannian manifolds with a negative lower bound for Ricci curvature are considerably more complicated and less understood. I will first survey some recent results on such manifolds with positive bottom of spectrum. Then I will discuss a rigidity theorem which characterizes hyperbolic manifolds. The proof uses idea from potential theory and Brownian motion on Riemannian manifolds

Speaker: Xiaodong Wang, Michigan State University
Location:
Fine Hall 314
November 21, 2008
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### An Exotic Sphere with Positive Sectional Curvature
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

I'll discuss joint work with Peter Petersen that shows that the Gromoll-Meyer exotic 7-sphere admits a metric of positive sectional curvature. I'll discuss the history of the problem and give a coarse outline of the proof.

Speaker: Fred Wilhelm, University of California, Riverside
Location:
Fine Hall 314
December 5, 2008
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### Harmonic maps between singular spaces
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

We will discuss regularity questions of harmonic maps from a simplicial complex to metric spaces of non-positive curvature. We will also discuss the relation with rigidity questions of group actions on these spaces.

Location:
Fine Hall 314
February 6, 2009
3:00pm - 4:00pm
##### Ends of locally symmetric spaces
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

We intend to explain joint work with Lizhen Ji and Peter Li on relating the size of the bottom spectrum to the number of ends for locally symmetric spaces.

Speaker: Jiaping Wang, University of Minnesota
Location:
Fine Hall 314
February 6, 2009
4:00pm - 6:00pm
##### Hyperdiscriminant polytopes, Chow Polytopes, and K-energy asymptotics
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

Let (X,L) be a polarized algebraic manifold. I have recently proved that the Mabuchi energy of (X,L) is bounded from below along any degeneration if and only if the Hyperdiscriminant polytope contains the Chow polytope (with respect to the various Kodaira embeddings). This completes the analysis initiated by Ding and Tian in their 1992 Inventiones paper "Kahler Einstein metrics and the Generalized Futaki Invariant," and therefore gives the final form to Tian's concept of K-semistability.

Speaker: Sean Paul, University of Wisconsin
Location:
Fine Hall 314
February 13, 2009
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### Compactness Properties of the Space of Genus-$g$ Helicoids
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

I will discuss a recent application of the work of Colding and Minicozzi of structure of embedded minimal surfaces in $\Real3$ to the study of compactness properties of the space of genus-$g$ helicoids. I will introduce the theory of Colding and Minicozzi and then show how it can be used to show (among other results) that the space of genus-one helicoids is compact (modulo symmetries). (Joint work with C. Breiner)

Speaker: Jacob Bernstein, MIT
Location:
Fine Hall 314
February 20, 2009
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### Geometric flows with rough initial data
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

In a recent joint work with Herbert Koch (University of Bonn) we showed the existence of a global unique and analytic solution for the mean curvature flow (in arbitrary codimensions) and the Willmore flow of entire graphs for Lipschitz initial data with small Lipschitz norm. In this talk I will explain our construction and, if time permits, I will show how similar constructions can be used to obtain the existence of a global unique and analytic solution of the Ricci-DeTurck flow on euclidean space for bounded initial metrics which are close to the euclidean metric in $L^\infty$ and of the harmonic map flow for initial maps whose image is contained in a small geodesic ball.

Speaker: Tobias Lamm, University of British Columbia
Location:
Fine Hall 314
February 27, 2009
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### Ricci flow on ALE spaces
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar
Speaker: Xianzhe Dai, University of California, Santa Barbara
Location:
Fine Hall 314
March 6, 2009
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### Greatest lower bounds on the Ricci curvature of Fano manifolds
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

On Fano manifolds we study the supremum of the possible t such that there exists a metric in the first Chern class with Ricci curvature bounded below by t. For the projective plane blown up in one point we show that this supremum is 6/7.

Speaker: Gabor Szekelyhidi, Columbia University
Location:
Fine Hall 314
March 13, 2009
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### The Einstein-Weyl Equations, Scattering Maps, and Holomorphic Disks
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

This talk will show that conformally compact, globally hyperbolic, Lorentzian Einstein-Weyl 3-manifolds are in natural one-to-one correspondence with orientation-reversing diffeomorphisms of the 2-sphere. The proof hinges on a holomorphic-disk analog of Hitchin's mini-twistor correspondence.

Speaker: Claude LeBrun, SUNY at Stony Brook
Location:
Fine Hall 314
March 27, 2009
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### On the structure of Lagrangian submanifolds
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

This is a report on a recent joint project with Lars Schaefer. We derive results related to the minimality of Lagrangian submanifolds. In particular, these apply to Lagrangian 3-folds and to Lagrangian submanifolds in twistor spaces over quaternionic Kaehler manifolds. We then use a splitting theorem to give a better description in dimensions four and five.

Speaker: Knut Smoczyk, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität, Hannover
Location:
Fine Hall 314
April 3, 2009
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### 11-dimensional supergravity and Dirichlet problem for forms on asymptotically hyperbolic spaces
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar
Speaker: Robin Graham, IAS
Location:
Fine Hall 314
April 10, 2009
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### A Second Boundary Value Problem for special Lagrangian submanifolds
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

Given any two uniformly convex regions in Euclidean space, we show that there exists a unique diffeomorphism between them, such that the graph of the diffeomorphism is a special Lagrangian submanifold in the product space. This is joint work with Simon Brendle.

Speaker: Micah Warren, Princeton University
Location:
Fine Hall 314
April 17, 2009
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### Lagrangian Mean Curvature flow for entire Lipschitz graphs
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

We prove existence of longtime smooth solutions to mean curvature flow of entire Lipschitz Lagrangian graphs. As an application of the estimates for the solution, we establish a Bernstein type result for translating solitons. The results are from joint work with Albert Chau and Weiyong He.

Speaker: Jingyi Chen, University of British Columbia
Location:
Fine Hall 314
April 24, 2009
3:00pm - 5:00pm
##### Ancient solutions to the curve shortening flow and the Ricci flow in 2 dimensions
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

I will give a classification of ancient convex closed embedded ancient solutions to the curve shortening flow and the ancient solutions to the Ricci flow on surfaces. This is a joint work with Daskalopoulos and Hamilton.

Speaker: Natasa Sesum, Columbia University
Location:
Fine Hall 314