Brady showed that there are hyperbolic groups with non-hyperbolic finitely presented subgroups. I will present a new construction of this kind using Bestvina-Brady Morse theory.
Lie algebroids are geometric structures that interpolate between finite-dimensional Lie algebras and tangent bundles of manifolds. They give a useful language for describing geometric situations that have local symmetries. I will give an introduction to the basic theory of Lie algebroids, with examples drawn from foliations, principal bundles, group actions, Poisson brackets, and singular hypersurfaces.
Spectral networks are certain collections of paths on a Riemann surface, introduced by Gaiotto, Moore, and Neitzke to study BPS states in certain N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories. They are interesting geometric objects in their own right, with a number of mathematical applications. In this talk I will give an introduction to what a spectral network is, and describe the "abelianization map" which, given a spectral network, produces nice "spectral coordinates" on the appropriate moduli space of flat connections. I will show that coordinates obtained in this way include a variety of previously known special cases (Fock-Goncharov coordinates and Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates), and mention at least one reason why generalising them in this way is of interest.
We give an overview of Kitaev's lattice model in the setting of an arbitrary finite group G (where $G = Z_{2}$ is the famous Toric Code). We also exhibit the connection this model has with so-called 123-TQFTs (topological quantum field theories), making use of ideas coming from higher gauge theory and Hopf algebra representations.
Topological insulators are a type of system in condensed matter physics that exhibit a robustness that physicists like to call topological. In this talk I will give a definition of a subclass of such systems: gapped, free fermions. We will look at how such systems, as shown by Kitaev, can be classified in terms of topological K-groups by using the Clifford module model for K-theory as introduced by Atiyah, Bott and Shapiro. I will be using results from Wednesday's JTGT, where I'll give a quick introduction to topological K-theory.
Since their introduction in the context of symplectic geometry, moment maps and symplectic quotients have been generalized in many different directions. In this talk I plan to give an introduction to the notions of hyperkähler moment map and hyperkähler quotient through two examples, apparently very different, but related by the so called ADHM construction of instantons; the moduli space of instantons and a space of complex matrices arising from monads.
The first half of this talk will be an introduction to the wonderful world of Higgs bundles. The last half concerns Fourier--Mukai transforms, and we will discuss how to merge the two concepts by constructing a Fourier--Mukai transform for Higgs bundles. Finally we will discuss some properties of this transform. We will along the way discuss why you would want to transform Higgs bundles.
The classical separate treatments of competition and predation, and an inability to provide a sensible theoretical basis for mutualism, attests to the inability of traditional models to provide a synthesising framework to study trophic interactions, a fundamental component of ecology. Recent approaches to food web modelling have focused on consumer-resource interactions. We develop this approach to explicitly represent finite resources for each population and construct a rigorous unifying theoretical framework with Lotka-Volterra Conservative Normal (LVCN) systems. We show that mixotrophy, a ubiquitous trophic interaction in marine plankton, provides the key to developing a synthesis of the various ways of making a living. The LVCN framework also facilitates an explicit redefinition of facultative mutualism, illuminating the over-simplification of the traditional definition.
We demonstrate a continuum between trophic interactions and show that populations can continuously and smoothly evolve through most population interactions without losing stable coexistence. This provides a theoretical basis consistent with the evolution of trophic interactions from autotrophy through mixotrophy/mutualism to heterotrophy.