Past Junior Geometry and Topology Seminar

I will give a survey-type introduction to manifolds equipped with $G_2$ structures, emphasizing the similarities and differences with Riemannian manifolds equipped with almost complex structures, and with oriented Riemannian 3-manifolds. Along the way I may discuss the Berger classification of Riemannian holonomy, the Calabi-Yau theorem, exceptional geometric structures arising from the algebra of the Octonions, and calibrated submanifolds. This talk is the second of two parts.

I will give a survey-type introduction to manifolds equipped with $G_2$ structures, emphasizing the similarities and differences with Riemannian manifolds equipped with almost complex structures, and with oriented Riemannian 3-manifolds. Along the way I may discuss the Berger classification of Riemannian holonomy, the Calabi-Yau theorem, exceptional geometric structures arising from the algebra of the Octonions, and calibrated submanifolds. This talk will be in two parts.

Geometrically, the problem of descent asks when giving some structure on a space is the same as giving some structure on a cover of the space, plus perhaps some extra data.
In algebraic geometry, faithfully flat descent says that if $X\rightarrow Y$ is a faithfully flat morphism of schemes, then giving a sheaf on $Y$ is the same as giving a collection of sheaves on a certain simplicial resolution constructed from $X$, satisfying certain compatibility conditions. Translated to algebra, it says that if $S\rightarrow R$ is a faithfully flat morphism of rings, then giving an $S$-module is the same as giving a certain simplical module over a simplicial ring constructed from $R$. In topology, given an etale cover $X\rightarrow Y$ one can recover $Y$ (at least up to homotopy equivalence) from a simplical space constructed from $X$.

The birational classification of varieties is an interesting and ongoing problem in algebraic geometry. This talk aims to give an

overview of the progress made on this problem in the special case where the varieties considered are surfaces in projective space.

Hilbert schemes classify subschemes of a given projective variety / scheme. They are special cases of Quot schemes which are moduli spaces for quotients of a fixed coherent sheaf. Hilb and Quot are among the first examples of moduli spaces in algebraic geometry, and they are crucial for solving many other moduli problems. I will try to give you a flavour of the subject by sketching the construction of Hilb and Quot and by discussing the role they play in applications, in particular moduli spaces of stable curves and moduli spaces of stable sheaves.

The usual procedure to obtain uniqueness theorems for black hole space-times ("No Hair" Theorems) requires the construction of global coordinates for the domain of outer communications (intuitively: the region outside the black hole). Besides an heuristic argument by Carter and a few other failed attempts the existence of such a (global) coordinate system as been neglected, becoming a quite hairy hypothesis.

After a review of the basic aspects of causal theory and a brief discussion of the definition of black-hole we will show how to construct such coordinates focusing on the non-negativity of the "area function".

Extending work of Klyachko and Perling, we develop a combinatorial description of pure equivariant sheaves on an arbitrary nonsingular toric

variety X. This combinatorial description can be used to construct moduli spaces of stable equivariant sheaves on X using Geometric Invariant Theory (analogous to techniques used in case of equivariant vector bundles on X by Payne and Perling). We study how the moduli spaces of stable equivariant sheaves on X can be used to explicitly compute the fixed point locus of the moduli space of all stable sheaves on X, i.e. the subscheme of invariant stable sheaves on X.

For continuous maps $f: S^{2n-1} \to S^n$ one can define an integer-valued invariant, the so-called Hopf invariant. The problem of determining for which $n$ there are maps having Hopf invariant one can be related to many problems in topology and geometry, such as which spheres are parallelisable, which spheres are H-spaces (that is, have a product), and what are the division algebras over $\mathbb{R}$.

The best way to solve this problem is using complex K-theory and Adams operations. I will show how all the above problems are related, give an introduction to complex K-theory and it's operations, and show how to use it to solve this problem.

The Nielsen realisation problem asks when a collection of diffeomorphisms, which form a group up to isotopy, is isotopic to a collection of diffeomorphisms which form a group on the nose. For surfaces this problem is well-studied, I'll talk about this problem in the context of K3 surfaces.

Will discuss several constructions of the Grothendieck group in different contexts together with Wall's solution of the problem of determining homotopy types of finite CW complexes as a motivating application.

Given an algebraic variety $X$ over the finite field ${\bf F}_{q}$, it is known that the zeta function of $X$,

$$ Z(X,T):=\mbox{exp}\left( \sum_{k=1}^{\infty} \frac{#X({\bf F}_{q^{k}})T^{k}}{k} \right) $$

is a rational function of $T$. It is an ongoing topic of research to efficiently compute $Z(X,T)$ given the defining equation of $X$.

I will summarize how we can use Berthelot's rigid cohomology (sparing you the actual construction) to compute $Z(X,T)$, first done for hyperelliptic curves by Kedlaya. I will go on to describe Lauder's deformation algorithm, and the promising fibration algorithm, outlining the present drawbacks.

In this talk I will introduce hyperbolic 3-manifolds, state some major conjectures about them, and discuss some group-theoretic properties of their fundamental groups.

This talk will be about the systematic simplification of differential equations.

After giving a geometric reformulation of the concept of a differential equation using prolongations, I will show how we can prolong group actions relatively easily at the level of Lie algebras. I will then discuss group-invariant solutions.

The key example will be the heat equation.