Marcos Jardim : On the spectrum of the Dirac operator and the Dolbeault Laplacian on Kahler manifolds
- Geometry and Topology ( 124 Views )There exists a large literature on lower bounds for the spectrum of the Dirac operator and the de Rham Laplacian on Riemannian manifolds. In this talk, we will consider the twisted Dirac operator and the twisted Dolbeault Laplacian on Kahler manifolds, and study how the spectrum changes with the coupling connection. We give lower bounds for their spectrum, showing that they are attained in the case of Riemann surfaces. This is joint work with Rafael F. Leao. The talk will be based on those two preprints, 0807.0813 and 0706.0878
Gábor Székelyhidi : Greatest lower bounds on the RIcci curvature of Fano manifolds
- Geometry and Topology ( 111 Views )On a Fano manifold M we study the supremum of the possible t such that there is a Kähler metric in c_1(M) with Ricci curvature bounded below by t. We relate this to Aubin's continuity method for finding Kähler-Einstein metrics and we give bounds on it for certain manifolds.
Adam Levine : Heegaard Floer Homology and Closed Exotic 4-Manifolds
- Geometry and Topology ( 135 Views )We discuss new methods for using the Heegaard Floer homology of hypersurfaces to distinguish between smooth closed 4-manifolds that are homeomorphic but non-diffeomorphic. Specifically, for a 4-manifold X with b_1(X)=1, the minimum rank of the reduced Heegaard Floer homology of any embedded 3-manifold X representing a generator of H_1(X) gives a diffeomorphism invariant of X. We use this invariant to distinguish certain infinite families of exotic 4-manifolds that cannot be distinguished by previously known techniques. Using related ideas, we also provide the first known examples of (non-simply-connected) exotic 4-manifolds with negative definite intersection form. This is joint work with Tye Lidman and Lisa Piccirillo.
Paul Allen : The Dirichlet problem for curve shortening flow.
- Geometry and Topology ( 104 Views )We consider the Dirichlet problem for curve shortening flow on surfaces of constant curvature and show long-time existence of the flow when the initial curve is embedded in a convex region. Furthermore, the limit curve of the flow is a geodesic. The proof relies on an adaptation of Huisken's distance comparison estimate for planar curves, a maximum principle of Angenent, and a blow-up analysis of singularities.
Florian Johne : A generalization of Gerochs conjecture
- Geometry and Topology ( 121 Views )Closed manifolds with topology N = M x S^1 do not admit metrics of positive Ricci curvature by the theorem of Bonnet-Myers, while the resolution of the Geroch conjecture implies that the torus T^n does not admit a metric of positive scalar curvature. In this talk we explain a non-existence result for metrics of positive m-intermediate curvature (a notion of curvature reducing to Ricci curvature for m = 1, and scalar curvature for m = n-1) on closed manifolds with topology N^n = M^{n-m} x T^m for n <= 7. Our proof uses minimization of weighted areas, the associated stability inequality, and delicate estimates on the second fundamental form. This is joint work with Simon Brendle and Sven Hirsch.
Matt Hogancamp : Categorical diagonalization of the full twist.
- Geometry and Topology ( 109 Views )I will discuss recent joint work with Ben Elias in which we introduce a theory of diagonalization of functors. Our main application is the diagonalization of the the Rouquier complex associated to full-twist braid, acting on the category of Soergel bimodules. The ``eigenprojections'' yield categorified Young symmetrizers, which are related to the flag Hilbert scheme by a beautiful recent conjecture of Gorsky-Rasmussen. Finally, I will mention a relationship with stable homology of torus links, which was recently investigated by myself and Michael Abel.
Chris Kottke : Partial compactification and metric asymptotics of monopoles
- Geometry and Topology ( 97 Views )I will describe a partial compactification of the moduli space, M_k, of SU(2) magnetic monopoles on R^3, wherein monopoles of charge k decompose into widely separated `monopole clusters' of lower charge going off to infinity at comparable rates. The hyperkahler metric on M_k has a complete asymptotic expansion, the leading terms of which generalize the asymptotic metric discovered by Bielawski, Gibbons and Manton in the case that the monopoles are all widely separated. This is joint work with M. Singer, and is part of a larger work in progress with R. Melrose and K. Fritzsch to fully compactify the M_k as manifolds with corners and determine their L^2 cohomology.
Bahar Acu : Foliations of contact manifolds by planar J-holomorphic curves and the Weinstein conjecture
- Geometry and Topology ( 124 Views )In this talk, we will describe foliations of high dimensional ''iterated planar" contact manifolds by J-holomorphic curves and show that, by using this kind of technology, one can prove the long-standing Weinstein conjecture for iterated planar contact manifolds.
Fernando Marques : The space of positive scalar curvature metrics on the three-sphere
- Geometry and Topology ( 122 Views )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. If time permits we will also discuss an application to general relativity.
Daniel Scofield : Patterns in Khovanov link and chromatic graph homology
- Geometry and Topology ( 100 Views )Khovanov homology of a link and chromatic graph homology are known to be isomorphic in a range of homological gradings that depend on the girth of a graph. In this talk, we discuss patterns shared by these two homology theories. In particular, we improve the bounds for the homological span of chromatic homology by Helme-Guizon, Przytycki and Rong. An explicit formula for the rank of the third chromatic homology group on the main diagonal is given and used to compute the corresponding Khovanov homology group and the fourth coefficient of the Jones polynomial for links with certain diagrams.
Robert Bryant : A Weierstrass representation for affine Bonnet surfaces
- Geometry and Topology ( 84 Views )Ossian Bonnet (1819–1892) classified the surfaces in Euclidean 3-space that can be isometrically deformed without changing the mean curvature function H, showing that there are two types: the surfaces of constant mean curvature and a 4-dimensional ‘exceptional family’ (with variable mean curvature) that are now known as Bonnet surfaces. The corresponding problem in affine 3-space is much more difficult, and the full classification is still unknown. More than 10 years ago, I classified the affine surfaces that can isometrically deformed (with respect to the induced Blaschke metric) while preserving their affine mean curvature in a 3-dimensional family (the maximum dimension possible), showing that they depend on 2 functions of 1 variable in Cartan’s sense. When I gave a talk* in this seminar about these results on September 10, 2013, I only knew that these surfaces corresponded to pseudoholomorphic curves in a certain almost-complex surface. However, I have recently shown that the structure equations for these mysterious surfaces can be interpreted as describing holomorphic Legendrian curves in CP^3 subject to a natural positivity condition, and the integration corresponds to a flat sp(2,R) connection, i.e., they can be interpreted as a Lax pair, but of a very special kind, for which the integration can be effected explicitly. I’ll explain these results and use them to show how the classical problem of determining the affine surfaces with constant affine mean curvature and constant Gauss curvature of the Blaschke metric can be explicitly integrated, which, heretofore, was unknown. * https://www4.math.duke.edu/media/watch_video.php?v=6948e657e69cadbaa1a6915335e9ea87
Jan Metzger : On isoperimetric surfaces in asymptotically flat manifolds
- Geometry and Topology ( 112 Views )I will present joint work with Michael Eichmair on the existence of large isoperimetric regions in complete asymptotically flat manifolds of arbitrary dimension with metric asymptotic to Schwarzschild. The key idea is an effective isopermetric inequality that forces nearly optimal regions to center in the manifold.
Chen-Yun Lin : An embedding theorem: differential geometry behind massive data analysis
- Geometry and Topology ( 132 Views )High-dimensional data can be difficult to analyze. Assume data are distributed on a low-dimensional manifold. The Vector Diffusion Mapping (VDM), introduced by Singer-Wu, is a non-linear dimension reduction technique and is shown robust to noise. It has applications in cryo-electron microscopy and image denoising and has potential application in time-frequency analysis. In this talk, I will present a theoretical analysis of the effectiveness of the VDM. Specifically, I will discuss parametrisation of the manifold and an embedding which is equivalent to the truncated VDM. In the differential geometry language, I use eigen-vector fields of the connection Laplacian operator to construct local coordinate charts that depend only on geometric properties of the manifold. Next, I use the coordinate charts to embed the entire manifold into a finite-dimensional Euclidean space. The proof of the results relies on solving the elliptic system and provide estimates for eigenvector fields and the heat kernel and their gradients.
Thomas Ivey : Cable knot solutions of the vortex filament flow
- Geometry and Topology ( 135 Views )The simplest model of vortex filament motion in an ideal fluid leads to an integrable nonlinear evolution equation, known as the localized induction approximation or the vortex filament flow, closely related to the cubic focusing nonlinear Schroedinger equation. For closed finite-gap solutions of this flow, certain geometric and topological features of the evolving curves appear to be correlated with the algebro-geometric data used to construct them. In this talk, I will briefly discuss this construction, and some low-genus examples (in particular, Kirchhoff elastic rod centerlines) where this correlation is well understood. I will mainly discuss recent joint work with Annalisa Calini, describing how to generate a family of closed finite-gap solutions of increasingly higher genus via a sequence of deformations of the multiply covered circle. We prove that every step in this sequence corresponds to constructing a cable on previous filament; moreover, the cable's knot type (which is invariant under the evolution) can be read off from the deformation sequence.
Ina Petkova : Knot Floer homology and the gl(1|1) link invariant
- Geometry and Topology ( 114 Views )The Reshetikhin-Turaev construction for the standard representation of the quantum group gl(1|1) sends tangles to C(q)-linear maps in such a way that a knot is sent to its Alexander polynomial. After a brief review of this construction, I will give an introduction to tangle Floer homology a combinatorial generalization of knot Floer homology which sends tangles to (homotopy equivalence classes of) bigraded dg bimodules. Finally, I will discuss how to see tangle Floer homology as a categorification of the Reshetikhin-Turaev invariant. This is joint work with Alexander Ellis and Vera Vertesi.
Justin Sawon : Fourier-Mukai transforms and deformations in generalized complex geometry
- Geometry and Topology ( 107 Views )Homological Mirror Symmetry proposes an equivalence between the derived category of coherent sheaves on a complex manifold and the (derived) Fukaya category of the mirror symplectic manifold. It is natural to consider the behaviour of these categories and equivalences under deformations of the underlying spaces.
In this talk I will describe Toda's results on deformations of the category Coh(X) of coherent sheaves on a complex manifold X. They come from deformations of X as a complex manifold, non-commutative deformations, and gerby deformations. These can all be interpreted as deformations of X as a generalized complex manifold; in some instances it is possible to deform X to a symplectic manifold. Toda also described how to deform Fourier-Mukai equivalences, and I will present some examples coming from mirror SYZ fibrations.
Faramarz Vafaee : Floer homology and Dehn surgery
- Geometry and Topology ( 145 Views )The past thirty years have witnessed the birth of a beautiful array of approaches to the field of low dimensional topology, drawing on diverse tools from algebra, analysis, and combinatorics. One particular tool that has made a dramatic impact on the field is the Heegaard Floer theory of Ozsvath and Szabo. Defined 17 years ago, this theory has produced an encompassing package of invariants, which have significantly impacted the study of many areas of low dimensional topology, including Dehn surgery. In this talk, we will focus on two questions: a) which 3-manifolds do arise by Dehn surgery along a knot in the 3-sphere? b) what are all ways to obtain a fixed 3-manifold by Dehn surgery along a knot in the 3-sphere?
Tye Lidman : Positive-definite symplectic four-manifolds
- Geometry and Topology ( 97 Views )We will prove that certain simply-connected four-manifolds with positive-definite intersection forms cannot admit symplectic structures. This is related to the existence of so-called perfect Morse functions. This is joint work with Jennifer Hom.
Adam Jacob : The Yang-Mills flow and the Atiyah-Bott formula on compact Kahler manifolds
- Geometry and Topology ( 118 Views )In this talk I will describe the limiting properties Yang-Mills flow on a holomorphic vector bundle E, in the case where the flow does not converge. In particular I will describe how to determine the L^2 limit of the curvature endomorphism along the flow. This proves a sharp lower bound for the Hermitian-Yang-Mills functional and thus the Yang-Mills functional, generalizing to arbitrary dimension a formula of Atiyah and Bott first proven on Riemann surfaces. I will then explain how to use this result to identify the limiting bundle along the flow, which turns out to be independent of metric and uniquely determined by the isomorphism class of E.
Iva Stavrov : On a point-particle gluing construction
- Geometry and Topology ( 119 Views )Analyzing the motion of a small body is often done by making a point-particle approximation. This simplification is not entirely appropriate in general relativity since, roughly speaking, too much mass in too little space creates black holes. In place of point-particles one considers one-parameter families of space-time metrics $\gamma_\varepsilon$ in which $\varepsilon\to 0$ corresponds to a body shrinking to zero size. In addition, certain point-particle limit properties are imposed on $\gamma_\varepsilon$. While there are some examples of such metrics $\gamma_\varepsilon$ (e.g. Schwarzschild-de Sitter space-time), there is no general existence theorem for such space-times. This talk will discuss a gluing construction which produces initial data with desirable point-particle limit properties.
Gordana Matic : Contact invariant in sutured Floer homology and fillability
- Geometry and Topology ( 128 Views )In the 70's Thurston and Winkelnkemper showed how an open book decomposition of a 3-manifold can be used to construct a contact structure. In 2000 Giroux showed that every contact structure on a 3-manifold can be obtained from that process. Ozsvath and Szabo used this fact to define an invariant of contact structures in their Heegaard Floer homology, providing an important new tool to study contact 3-manifolds. In joint work with Ko Honda and Will Kazez we describe a simple way to visualize this contact invariant and provide a generalization and some applications. When the contact manifold has boundary, we define an invariant of contact structure living in sutured Floer homology, a variant of Heegaard Floer homology for a manifold with boundary due to Andras Juhasz. We describe a natural gluing map on sutured Floer homology and show how it produces a (1+1)-dimensional TQFT leading to new obstructions to fillability.
Paul Norbury : Magnetic monopoles on manifolds with boundary
- Geometry and Topology ( 140 Views )Kapustin and Witten introduced interesting boundary value problems for magnetic monopoles on a Riemann surface times an interval. They described the moduli space of such solutions in terms of Hecke modifications of holomorphic bundles over the Riemann surface. I will explain this and prove existence and uniqueness for such monopoles.
Simon Brendle : Singularity formation in geometric flows
- Geometry and Topology ( 292 Views )Geometric evolution equations like the Ricci flow and the mean curvature flow play a central role in differential geometry. The main problem is to understand singularity formation. In this talk, I will discuss recent results which give a complete picture of all the possible limit flows in 2D mean curvature flow with positive mean curvature, and in 3D Ricci flow.