Introduction to complex projective structure

Speaker: 

Shinpei Baba

Institution: 

Caltech

Time: 

Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - 4:00pm

Location: 

RH 306

A (complex) projective structure is a geometric structure
on a real surface, and it is a refinement of a complex structure.
In addition each projective structure enjoys  a homomorphism of the
fundamental group of the surface into PSL(2,C), which is called
holonomy representation.

We discuss about some well-known results and basic examples of
complex projective structures.  In addition, we talk about different
projective structures sharing such a homomorphism.

Isoperimetric inequality and Q-curvature

Speaker: 

Yi Wang

Institution: 

Stanford University

Time: 

Tuesday, April 29, 2014 - 4:00pm

Location: 

RH 306

A well-known question in differential geometry is to prove the
isoperimetric inequality under intrinsic curvature conditions. In
dimension 2, the isoperimetric inequality is controlled by the integral of
the positive part of the Gaussian curvature. In my recent work, I prove
that on simply connected conformally flat manifolds of higher dimensions,
the role of the Gaussian curvature can be replaced by the Branson's
Q-curvature. The isoperimetric inequality is valid if the integral of the
Q-curvature is below a sharp threshold. Moreover, the isoperimetric
constant depends only on the integrals of the Q-curvature. The proof
relies on the theory of A_p weights in harmonic analysis.

Hofer energy and Gromov's monotonicity of J-holomorphic curves

Speaker: 

Erkao Bao

Institution: 

UC Los Angeles

Time: 

Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - 4:00pm

Location: 

RH 306

In this talk, I will explain the notion of Hofer energy of
J-holomorphic curves in a noncompact symplectic manifold M. If M
comes from puncturing a closed symplectic manifold, we prove that the
Hofer energy can by bounded by a constant times the symplectic
energy. As an immediate consequence, we prove a version of Gromov's
monotonicity theorem with multiplicity for J-holomorphic curves.

Antipodal structure of the intersection of real forms and its applications

Speaker: 

Takashi Sakai

Institution: 

Tokyo Metropolitan University

Time: 

Tuesday, March 11, 2014 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm

Host: 

Location: 

RH 306

    A subset $A$ of a Riemannian symmetric space is called an antipodal set
if the geodesic symmetry $s_x$ fixes all points of $A$ for each $x \in A$.
This notion was first introduced by Chen and Nagano.  In this talk, using
the $k$-symmetric structure, first we describe an antipodal set of a complex
flag manifold.  Tanaka and Tasaki proved that the intersection of two real
forms $L_1$ and $L_2$ in a Hermitian symmetric space of compact type is an
antipodal set of $L_1$ and $L_2$.  We can observe the same phenomenon for
the intersection of certain real forms in a complex flag manifold.
  As an application, we calculate the Lagrangian Floer homology of a pair
of real forms in a monotone Hermitian symmetric space.  Then we obtain
a generalization of the Arnold-Givental inequality.
  This talk is based on a joint work with Hiroshi Iriyeh and Hiroyuki Tasaki.

Critical metrics on connected sums of Einstein four-manifolds

Speaker: 

Jeff Viaclovsky

Institution: 

UW Madison

Time: 

Tuesday, February 4, 2014 - 4:00pm to 5:00pm

Host: 

Location: 

RH 306

I will discuss a gluing procedure designed to obtain canonical metrics on connected sums of Einstein four-manifolds. The main application is an existence result, using two well-known Einstein manifolds as building blocks: the Fubini-Study metric on CP^2, and the product metric on S^2 x S^2. Using these metrics in various gluing configurations, critical metrics are found on connected sums for a specific Riemannian functional, which depends on the global geometry of the factors. This is joint work with Matt Gursky.

Isoperimetric comparisons and geometric flows

Speaker: 

Paul Bryan

Institution: 

UC San Diego

Time: 

Tuesday, March 4, 2014 - 4:00pm

Location: 

RH 306

The study of isoperimetric inequalities has a long history,
it's humble beginnings in Ancient Greek mathematics belying a deep and
rich theory. A major tool in the study of the isoperimetric profile is
the Calculus of Variations. Variational arguments lead to weak
differential inequalities for the isoperimetric profile, which allows
analytical tools such as the maximum principle to be employed. Of
central importance here is the connection with curvature, which is
intimately connected with the topology of isoperimetric regions. I
will survey some of the results in this direction, paying particular
attention to the interplay of the isoperimetric profile and curvature
flows which is the focus of my current research.

Geometry of Lagrangian submanifolds related to isoparametric hypersurfaces

Speaker: 

Yoshihiro Ohnita

Institution: 

Dept of Math, Osaka City University, Japan

Time: 

Tuesday, March 11, 2014 - 4:00pm to 5:00pm

Host: 

Location: 

RH 306

In this talk I shall provide a survey of my recent works and their environs on differential geometry of Lagrangian submanifolds in specific K\"ahler manifolds, such as complex projective spaces, complex space forms, Hermitian symmetric spaces and so on. I shall emphasis on the relationship between certain minimal Lagrangian submanifold in complex hyperquadrics and isoparametric hypersurfaces in spheres. This talk is mainly based on my joint work with Associate Professor Hui Ma (Tsinghua University, Beijing).

Polar actions on symmetric spaces

Speaker: 

Jurgen Berndt

Institution: 

Dept of Math, King's College London

Time: 

Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 4:00pm to 5:00pm

Location: 

RH 306

An isometric action of a connected Lie group on a Riemannian manifold is called polar if there exists a connected closed submanifold that meets each orbit of the action and intersects it orthogonally. Dadok established in 1985 a remarkable, and mysterious, relation between polar actions on Euclidean spaces and Riemannian symmetric spaces. Soon afterwards an attempt was made to classify polar actions on symmetric spaces. For irreducible symmetric spaces of compact type the final step of the classification has just been achieved by Kollross and Lytchak. In the talk I want to focus on symmetric spaces of noncompact type. For actions of reductive groups one can use the concept of duality between symmetric spaces of compact type and of noncompact type. However, new examples and phenomena arise from the geometry induced by actions of parabolic subgroups, for which there is no analogon in the compact case. I plan to discuss the main difficulties one encounters here and some partial solutions.

Finite subgroups of symplectic Cremona group

Speaker: 

Weiwei Wu

Institution: 

Michigan State University

Time: 

Tuesday, January 28, 2014 - 4:00pm

Location: 

RH 306

Finite subgroup of Cremona group is a classical topic in algebraic geometry since the 19th century.  In this talk we explain an extension of this problem to the symplectic category.  In particular, we will explain the symplectic counterparts of two classical theorems.  The first one due to Noether, says a plane Cremona map is decomposed into a sequence of quadratic transformations, which is generalized to the symplectic category on the homological level.  The second one is due to Castelnuovo and Kantor, which says a minimal G-surface either has a conic bundle structure or is a Del Pezzo surface.  The latter theorem lies the ground of classifications of finite Cremona subgroups due to Dolgachev and Iskovskikh.  This is an ongoing program joint with Weimin Chen and Tian-Jun Li

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