GT seminar

The G&T seminar

Welcome to the webpage of the Geometry and Topology seminar at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Luxembourg.

Organizers: Adam Chalumeau, Carl Lutz.

Former organisers include: Alexey Balitskiy, Christian El Emam, Mingkun Liu, Nathaniel Sagman, Katie Vokes and Danyu Zhang.

2026-2027

Next talk

We are starting to put together next year's seminar program. If you are interested in giving a talk in our seminar, please contact the organizers with a proposed title and abstract.

Future talks

Previous talks

2025-2026

Thursday 16 July 2026 -- 3:30pm, Chalk Room

Sergio Augusto Romaña Ibarra (Sun Yat-Sen University)

Title: Mañé's Problem for Non-Compact Manifolds with Bounded Geometry
Abstract: The geodesic flow of a Riemannian manifold sits at the interface of geometry and dynamics: curvature typically governs the flow's stability, but a fundamental converse question asks whether dynamical hyperbolicity can conversely constrain the underlying geometry. Klingenberg's classical theorem asserts that any compact manifold with Anosov geodesic flow has no conjugate points. Mañé extended this result to the finite-volume setting, yet the infinite-volume case remained open for decades, precisely because the lack of compactness allows geometric pathologies at infinity. In this lecture, we settle Mañé's problem for bounded geoemtry. We prove that every non-compact Riemannian manifold with bounded geometry (i.e., sectional curvature bounded both above and below)and whose geodesic flow is Anosov must have no conjugate points. Our result shows that the two-sided control on curvature—not merely a lower bound—is the essential ingredient that allows the dynamical hyperbolicity to enforce a global geometric obstruction. This is based on joint work with Ítalo Melo (UFPI).

Thursday 9 July 2026 -- 3:30pm, Room 1.020

Pasquale Andolfo (University of Pavia)

Title: Earthquakes in 2-dimensional hyperbolic geometry
Abstract: I will present Thurston's proof of the Earthquake Theorem, focusing in particular on the universal case. Compared with other known proofs, Thurston's argument is more constructive and relies on more elementary techniques. If time permits, I will also discuss Mess's proof of the theorem, which is based on anti-de Sitter geometry, and compare it with Thurston's approach.

Wednesday 8 July 2026 -- 3:30pm, Room 1.020

Robert Kropholler (University of Warwick)

Title: Virtual fibering of surface-by-free groups and the Putman-Wieland conjecture.
Abstract: We will discuss the connection between virtual fibering of surface-by-free groups with the Putman-Wieland conjecture. In particular, we show that there is a surface-by-free group that does not virtually algebraic fiber if and only if a certain part of the Putman-Wieland conjectures holds. We will compare this with similar results in the case of free groups and free-abelian groups. This is joint work with Stefano Vidussi and Genevieve Walsh.

Thursday 2 July 2026 -- 3:30pm, Room 1.040

Nicolas Tholozan (ENS Ulm)

Title: Spacelike cocompact actions of surface groups
Abstract: I will present the ground work of a general theory of « space like cocompact actions » of a discrete group on a pseudo-riemannian homogeneous space. As an application, I will explain how to construct a spherical CR structure on the product of a surface and the circle.

Thursday 18 June 2026 -- 11:00am, Room 1.020

Sayantika Mondal (CUNY)

Title: Counting minimally intersecting filling curves on surfaces: an experiment in AI-assisted mathematics
Abstract: A filling curve system on a closed oriented surface of genus $g$ is minimally intersecting if its complement is a single disk. We discuss the asymptotic enumeration of mapping class group orbits of such systems, both for multi-curve systems and for single curves. We provide an exact asymptotic formula, exponential in $g$, for the number of orbits of multi-curve systems, and use computational data to conjecture a slower growth rate for the single-curve subfamily — slower by a polynomial factor in $g$. The talk also reflects on the role of AI as a mathematical collaborator. The two problems illustrate a useful contrast. For the first, I had the guiding idea, and AI helped carry out the computations effectively enough to complete the argument; along the way it also enabled rapid exploration of multiple proof strategies drawn from different areas (representation theory, combinatorics, generating functions, probabilistic heuristics), some of which were dead ends. For the second, AI eventually generated the supporting data and helped formulate the conjecture, but only after many attempts including false ones — and it stopped short of supplying the key idea needed to actually solve the problem. In my experience, this reflects something genuine about what AI-assisted mathematical research currently looks like: a real accelerator for computation, exploration, and conjecture formation, but not yet a source of the decisive idea when a proof is missing.

Thursday 28 May 2026 -- 3:30pm, Chalk Room

Noa Vikman (University of Fribourg)

Title: Harmonic 2-Spheres in Metric Spaces
Abstract: In this talk, I will present an approach to studying energy-minimizing 2-spheres in a metric setting, based on joint work with Damaris Meier and Stefan Wenger. In particular, I will highlight key concepts and techniques that we use to establish new existence results. For instance, we show that, under suitable conditions, there exists a collection of harmonic spheres that generates the second homotopy group of the space. This generalizes the corresponding result of Sacks–Uhlenbeck where the space is a compact Riemannian manifold.

Thursday 21 May 2026 -- 1:00pm, Chalk Room

Nicolas Stutz (Strasbourg University)

Title: Geometry of lightlike geodesics in Lorentzian manifolds
Abstract: In this talk we will consider lightlike geodesics in three-dimensional Lorentzian manifolds. It is known that the space of these geodesics is a contact manifold. We will focus on the model space of conformal Lorentzian geometry, namely the Einstein Universe. In this framework, it is known that the space of lightlike geodesics is equipped with a projective structure in addition of the contact structure. We will present a way to see that the space of pointed lightlike geodesics carries an Engel structure with a split and we will use this structure to describe the contact geometry of lightlike geodesics.

Thursday 7 May 2026 -- 2:45pm, Room 1.050

Mingkun Liu (Univerité Sorbonne Paris Nord)

Title: Random surfaces and random graphs
Abstract: After a brief historical review, I will explain how to pick a random hyperbolic surface of genus g. We will then turn to the length spectrum, focusing in particular on the short closed geodesics on such a random surface. It turns out that, when the genus g is large, the lengths of these geodesics are distributed just like the short cycles in a large random graph. This is joint work with Simon Barazer and Alessandro Giacchetto. This work was done in Luxembourg.

Thursday 30 April 2026 -- 3:30pm, Chalk Room

Claudio Llosa Isenrich (University of Luxembourg)

Title: $L^p$-measure equivalence classification of nilpotent groups
Abstract: A famous open problem in geometric group theory is the quasi-isometry classification of nilpotent groups. Conjecturally, two simply connected nilpotent Lie groups are quasi-isometric if and only if they are isomorphic. In the 1980s, Pansu reduced the conjecture to nilpotent groups with isomorphic associated Carnot graded group. After introducing all relevant notions and discussing the state of the art on this conjecture, I will explain why measured group theory might allow us to make progress towards its solution. In particular, I will explain a converse to a theorem of Austin, which implies that two simply connected nilpotent groups have isomorphic associated Carnot graded groups if and only if they are integrably measure equivalent. More generally, I will present a classification of simply connected nilpotent Lie groups up to $L^p$ measure equivalence for every $p\leq 1$. This is joint work with Thiebout Delabie and Romain Tessera.

Thursday 19 March 2026 -- 2:30pm, Room 1.050

Roman Prosanov (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Title: Projective background of $(2+1)$-spacetimes of constant curvature
Abstract: William Thurston in his Geometrization Program suggested a new approach to locally homogeneous Riemannian structures and highlighted their significance for $3$-dimensional topology. It was soon recognized that Thurston's approach is also very fruitful in non-Riemannian settings, particularly in Lorentzian, as it was demonstrated by the pioneering work of Geoffrey Mess on $(2+1)$-spacetimes of constant curvature. Geometries of constant curvature, whether Riemannian or Lorentzian, can be considered as subgeometries of projective geometry, which in particular allows to perform interesting geometric transitions between different geometries. In my talk I will describe how this viewpoint allows to deduce rigidity results on anti-de Sitter $(2+1)$-spacetimes using the resolution of analogous problems in the setting of Minkowski spacetimes. The talk is partially based on joint works with François Fillastre and Jean-Marc Schlenker.

Thursday 12 March 2026 -- 3:30pm, Room 1.040

Alexander I. Bobenko (Technische Universität Berlin)

Title: The Bonnet problem: Is a surface characterized by its metric and curvatures?
Abstract: A longstanding problem in differential geometry, known as the Bonnet problem, is whether a compact surface is uniquely determined by its metric and mean curvature function. It is known that this is the case for generic surfaces, and also for topological spheres. We explicitly construct a pair of immersed tori in three-dimensional Euclidean space that are related by a mean curvature preserving isometry. These tori are the first examples of compact Bonnet pairs. Moreover, we prove these isometric tori are real analytic. This resolves also a second longstanding open problem on whether real analyticity of the metric already determines a unique compact immersion. Discrete differential geometry is used to find crucial geometric properties of surfaces. This is a joint work with Tim Hoffmann and Andrew Sageman-Furnas.

Thursday 5 March 2026 -- 2pm, Room 1.020

Nathaniel Sagman (University of North Carolina)

Title: Harmonic maps from $\mathbf{C}$ to $\mathbf{H}^2$ with polynomial Hopf differentials
Abstract: Questions stemming from 3-dimensional hyperbolic geometry and non-abelian Hodge theory motivate a classically flavoured problem: describe all harmonic maps from the complex plane $\mathbf{C}$ to the hyperbolic plane $\mathbf{H}^2$ with polynomial Hopf differentials (and not just harmonic diffeomorphisms, as considered by Han-Tam-Treibergs-Wan). In this talk, I’ll tell you what we’ve learned about the existence, uniqueness, and geometry of such harmonic maps, with an eye toward applications. This represents joint work in progress with S. Maloni and L.. Nguyen.

Friday 27 Feb 2026 -- 3pm, Chalk Room

Antoine Ablondi (Université de Montpellier)

Title: Affine deformations of divisible Cones and affine spacetimes
Abstract: In his work, Mess has introduced a correspondence between affine deformations of Fuchsian subgroups of $SO(2,1)$ and certain flat Lorentzian spacetimes. That correspondence was then extended to affine deformations of uniform lattices of $SO(n,1)$ by Barbot and Bonsante. The study of these spacetimes using duality and convexity in the Minkowski space has proved to be very effective, but these latter tools are not specific to the Minkowski space; they actually just originate from convex geometry in an affine space. There is also another broader framework than cocompact lattices of $SO(n,1)$ linked to affine and convex projective manifolds. It is given by subgroups of $SL(n+1,R)$ dividing a convex cone in the sense of Benoist. I will therefore present a natural generalisation of the Mess-Barbot-Bonsante correspondence: between affine deformations of groups dividing convex cones and some "affine spacetimes" (the definition of which I will introduce).

Thursday 12 Feb 2026 -- 3:30pm, Room 1.040

Ivan Izmestiev (Technische Universität Wien)

Title: On smooth, discrete, and semi-discrete Voss surfaces.
Abstract: A Voss surface is a smooth surface possessing a conjugate net of geodesics. It turns out that a Voss surface can be isometrically deformed so that this net remains conjugate. The rotation field of the corresponding isometric deformation is a pseudospherical surface, that is a surface of constant curvature -1. In this talk we discuss the discrete and the semi-discrete analogs of Voss surfaces (which are special classes of quad-surfaces and surfaces glued from developable strips) and uncover many analogies with the smooth case. This is a work in progress with Matteo Raffaelli and Arvin Rasoulzadeh.

Wednesday 11 Feb 2026 -- 3pm, Room 1.040

Colin Davalo (University of Torino)

Title: Slices of discrete representations constructed from Higgs bundles.
Abstract: In order to study the space of representations of a surface group into a semi-simple Lie group up to conjugation, the character variety, Higgs bundles are useful tools. Hitchin introduced a bijection between the moduli space of these objects and the space of representations up to conjugation, which has been very useful to study the topology of the character variety. In general however it is difficult to know if the representation associated to a Higgs bundle has good geometric properties. For split real Lie groups in rank 2, I will explain how one can construct slices in the character variety containing representations that are all discrete and faithful and more precisely satisfy Anosov properties, and how one can describe geometric structures associated with these representations, modelled on flag manifolds. I will in particular present results from joint works with Samuel Bronstein in $SL(3,\mathbf R)$ and Parker Evans in $G_2'$.

Thursday 18 Dec 2025 -- 2:45pm, Room 1.010

Joel Fine (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

Title: Counting minimal surfaces in three and four-dimensional manifolds.
Abstract: It is a classical fact, due to Weierstrass, that the Gauss map of a minimal surface is holomorphic. Meanwhile, Gromov showed that when an almost complex structure J is tamed by a symplectic form it is possible to count J-holomorphic curves. I will describe how to put these two observations together to count minimal surfaces as a type of Gromov-Witten invariant. If one does this in a 4-dimensional manifold, the appropriate "Gauss map" takes values in its twistor space. The existence of a taming symplectic form for the relevant J is implied by a certain curvature inequality. If one is interested in a 3-manifold, then by taking an appropriate warped product one obtains a 4-manifold and the 4D curvature inequality is satisfied if the original 3-manifold is negatively curved. I will then describe conjectures and open questions that this picture leads to: What does the Alexander polynomial of a link L have to do with minimal surfaces in hyperbolic 4-space with ideal boundary L? Can we use minimal surfaces to define new invariants of links in 3-manifolds? Can we detect different connected components in the space of solutions to the curvature inequalities? Unfortunately the talk will be mainly questions and very few answers!

Thursday 11 Dec 2025 -- 2:45pm, chalk room

Marco Usula (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

Title: Biharmonic Maps on Conformally Compact Manifolds
Abstract: In this talk, I will present a result proved in my recent paper arXiv:2502.13580. I will discuss biharmonic maps between (and submanifolds of) conformally compact manifolds, a large class of complete manifolds generalizing hyperbolic space. After an introduction to conformally compact geometry, I will discuss one of the main results of the paper: if $S$ is a properly embedded sub-manifold of a conformally compact manifold $(N,h)$, and moreover $S$ is transverse to the boundary and $(N,h)$ has non-positive curvature, then $S$ must be minimal. This result confirms a conjecture known as the Generalized Chen’s Conjecture, in the conformally compact context.

Thursday 11 Dec 2025 -- 4pm, chalk room (special end of the year session)

David Fisac (Université Paris-Est Créteil)

Title: The combinatorics of curves on the once-punctured torus
Abstract: This talk will provide a heuristic overview of how combinatorial methods can yield insights into curves on the once-punctured torus. We will discuss their intersections, counting, and some connections to number theory. It will be based on different works, some in collaboration with Mingkun Liu, and some still ongoing.

Thursday 4 Dec 2025 -- 2:45pm, chalk room

Sara Maloni (University of Virginia)

Title: Geometric Structures in Higher Teichmüller Theory
Abstract: The Teichmüller space of a surface $S$ is the deformation space of marked hyperbolic structures. This can be viewed as a component of representations of the fundamental group $\pi_1(S)$ into the isometry group of hyperbolic space. Higher Teichmüller Theory generalizes this idea by studying representations of surface groups into Lie groups of higher rank. In this talk, we will introduce key ideas in the theory of deformations of geometric structures, (higher) Teichmüller Theory and the concept of Anosov representations. We'll also discuss recent work with Alessandrini, Tholozan, and Wienhard and work of my PhD student Mason Hart, showing how these representations also relate to deformations of geometric structures.

Thursday 27 Nov 2025 -- 2:45pm, MNO 1.040

Thibault Lefeuvre (LMO, Université Paris-Saclay)

Title: The spectrum of Anosov representations
Abstract: I will report on an ongoing project in collaboration with Yannick Guedes Bonthonneau and Tobias Weich. The goal of this work is to define a natural spectrum associated with Anosov representations, consisting of complex hypersurfaces in the complexified dual Cartan subalgebra. The leading hypersurface corresponds to a well-known object in the literature—the so-called critical hypersurface of the representation. To some extent, this spectrum generalizes a similar notion in the rank-one case, known as the set of Pollicott–Ruelle resonances (and the leading resonance), which is known to encode the exponential decay of correlations, among other properties. I will describe the main consequences of this spectral approach, namely the meromorphic extension (to the full complexified dual Cartan subalgebra) of dynamical zeta functions and Poincaré series associated with the representation, and the sharp (polynomial) decay of correlation for the refraction flow. If time permits, I will discuss perspectives for future work, such as the higher rank quantum-classical correspondance, or the computation of specific values of zeta functions and Poincaré series.

Thursday 13 Nov 2025 -- 2:45pm, chalk room

Vladimir Fock (IRMA, Université de Strasbourg)

Title: Hidden symmetries of Riemannian geometry
Abstract: We reformulate the Riemannian geometry in terms of forms with values in a Clifford algebra (what is in fact equivalent to Palatini - Cartan moving frame) and show that the space of such forms admits the action of $sl(2) \times sl(2)$ Lie algebra. This action allows to give one line proof of many relations, like Bianchi identities. For example, Einstein equations in dimension four amounts to the invariance of the curvature. It allows also to simplify handling variational computations and gauge group actions. In the case of Kahler geometry the group $sl(2) \times sl(2)$ extends to $sl(4)$ (independent of the dimension of the space-time).

Thursday 6 Nov 2025 -- 2:45pm, chalk room

Blandine Galiay (IRMA, Université de Strasbourg)

Title: Anosov groups preserving proper domains in flag manifolds
Abstract: $P$-Anosov representations of a hyperbolic group $\Gamma$ into a real semisimple Lie group G are a higher-rank generalization of convex cocompact representations. Since their introduction in the early 2000s by Labourie, they have attracted growing interest, both in the study of discrete subgroups of Lie groups and in the context of geometric structures and higher Teichmüller theory. Although their definition is essentially dynamical, Danciger--Guéritaud--Kassel and Zimmer provided a geometric characterization for those that are $P_1$-Anosov in $G=PGL(n,R)$ (also called projective Anosov representations) and preserve a proper domain in projective space --- a property Danciger--Guéritaud--Kassel call "strong projective convex cocompactness --- and many examples of such representations are known. However, in the general case, for an arbitrary $G$, there is no guarantee of the existence of $P$-Anosov representations preserving a proper domain in the flag manifold $G/P$. After recalling the definition and main properties of Anosov representations, we will present a necessary topological condition on self-opposite flag manifolds $G/P$ for the existence of $P$-Anosov representations in $G$ that preserve a proper domain in $G/P$, together with the construction of examples. This will be illustrated through the concrete example of the Grassmannians.

Thursday 30 Oct 2025 -- 2:45pm, MNO 1.020

Ali Tahzibi (University of São Paulo)

Title: Maximal entropy measures for Discretized Anosov flows
Abstract: Measures of maximal entropy (mme) are invariant measures which see the full topological entropy of a dynamical system. Discretized Anosov flows (DAF) are partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms which are (not necessarily constant) discretization of topological Anosov flows. In a joint work with J. Buzzi, S. Crovisier and M. Poletti and based on a previous work with J.Buzzi and T. Fisher, we prove a dichotomy on the uniqueness and hyperbolicity of mme for DAF. We talk about construction of conformal measures on leaves of foliation in this talk.

Thursday 23 Oct 2025 -- 2:45pm, MNO 1.040

Ygor de Jesus (Luxembourg)

Title: What is Ygor's favorite dynamical system?
Abstract: Everyone has a favorite dynamical system—though most of us won’t admit it. In this talk, we will explore a few candidates for Ygor’s favorite one. Is it the elegant rotation on the circle, whose simplicity hides a rich arithmetic structure? The chaotic yet structured geodesic flow on a negatively curved manifold? Or perhaps a smooth Anosov diffeomorphism that embodies hyperbolicity in its purest form? Through these examples, we will revisit the key themes that make a system “beautiful”: invariance, rigidity, and the geometry underlying stable and unstable directions. By the end, we may not know for sure what Ygor’s favorite dynamical system is, but we will understand much better why some systems capture our mathematical imagination more than others.

Thursday 16 Oct 2025 -- 2:45pm, MNO 1.030

Carl Lutz (Luxembourg)
Title: Exploring discrete conformal geometry: From classical roots to open questions

Abstract: Discrete conformal structures — in particular, circle patterns — offer an effective way to discretize smooth conformality. They exhibit deep connections to classical areas such as complex analysis, differential equations, and hyperbolic geometry. They also lend themselves to numerical algorithms that offer opportunities for experimental mathematical exploration. In this talk, I will discuss circle patterns corresponding to convex pleated surfaces in hyperbolic 3-manifolds, outlining their historical development, current progress, and open problems that motivate ongoing research.

Thursday 2 Oct 2025 -- 2:45pm, chalk room

Jing Zhou (Great Bay University)

Title: On the extension of Aubry-Mather theory and its application to Frenkel-Kontorova model and rotated Heisenberg model
Abstract: Aubry-Mather theory deals with the existence of orbits of arbitrary rotation numbers for monotone twist maps on annulus. These orbits form so-called Aubry-Mather sets, whose geometry and hyperbolicity are closely intertwined. The two standing pillars of Aubry-Mather theory are the exactness and twist condition of the monotone twist maps. In this talk, we shall discuss what happens when these two fundamental assumptions fail on natural scenarios of physics origin, i.e. the Frenkel-Kontorova model and the rotated Heisenberg model. The former is a joint work with Mark Levi and the latter is a work in progress with Fadi Sun.

2024-2025

Monday 2 June 2025 -- 4pm, MNO 1.020

Rob Kusner (UMass Amherst)

Title: Special Surfaces in Codimension One & Two: Results & Questions, Old & New
Abstract: The study of special (minimal, constant mean curvature, Willmore...) surfaces in space-forms has been motivated by problems from nature (the shapes of soap films, bubbles, membranes...). After more than two centuries of progress constructing them, exploring their geometry, and developing tools to understand how they can be deformed within their moduli spaces, there is still much more to learn. We will discuss some older results and questions about these surfaces and their moduli spaces (for instance, their relationship to more classical objects like moduli spaces of complex projective structures), as well as some very recent results (with Karpukhin, McGrath and Stern) constructing many new embedded minimal surfaces of every topological type in $\mathbb S^3$ (closed) and $\mathbb B^3$ (free boundary), and (if time permits) our ongoing work constructing embedded nonorientable surfaces in $\mathbb S^4$ and and $\mathbb B^4$ via eigenvalue optimization.

Monday 26 May 2025 -- 4pm, chalk room

Asbjorn Nordentoft (Université Paris-Saclay)

Title: A geometric view on thin subgroups of Fuchsian groups
Abstract: To any thin subgroup of a finite co-volume Fuchsian group one can associate a hyperbolic orbifold with geodesic boundary. The projection of the geodesic boundary gives a stratification (or partition) of the set of all thin subgroups. In this talk I will explain how in some cases one can understand the fibers of this stratification. In the case of the modular group this gives a new and geometric perspective on a construction of Duke, Imamoglu and Toth using (minus) continued fractions.

Monday 12 May 2025 -- 4pm, MNO 1.050 (slides room)

Naomi Bredon (University of Luxembourg)

Title: Hyperbolic Coxeter polyhedra in dimensions beyond 3
Abstract: In this talk, we discuss the classification of hyperbolic Coxeter polyhedra in dimensions beyond 3. After an introduction to the subject and a brief overview of known classification results, we present a universal lower bound for the dihedral angles of Coxeter polyhedra with mutually intersecting facets, together with a recipe to classify them all. We provide a new Coxeter polyhedron in dimension 9 and complete the classification of ADEG-polyhedra.

Monday 5 May 2025 -- 4pm, MNO 1.030 (slides room)

Neige Paulet (Queen's University)

Title: Finiteness of the gluing procedure of Anosov flows in dimension 3
Abstract: In this talk, I will first introduce Anosov flows and their significance in the study of hyperbolic dynamical systems and the topology of 3-manifolds. A fundamental question is whether a given 3-manifold supports only finitely many Anosov flows up to orbit equivalence. A powerful construction method involves gluing “building blocks” of flows. I will present a finiteness result for Anosov flows obtained through this procedure. I will also explain how this result, combined with classification results, contributes to an ongoing work on the finiteness problem for Anosov flows on 3-manifolds.

Monday 28 April 2025 -- 4pm, MNO 1.050 (slides room)

Niloufar Fuladi (Centre Inria de l'Université de Lorraine)

Title: Universal families of curves on surfaces
Abstract:In this talk I introduce a family of curves that realize all pants decomposition of a surface: a family of simple closed curves Γ on a surface realizes all types of pants decompositions if for any pants decomposition of the surface, there exists a homeomorphism sending it to a subset of the curves in Γ. The study of such universal families of curves is motivated by questions on graph embeddings, joint crossing numbers and finding an elusive center of moduli space. I will discuss the case of surfaces without punctures, where we establish an exponential upper bound and a superlinear lower bound on the minimum size of the family of curves with this universal property. I also talk about a similar concept of universality for triangulations of polygons, where we provide bounds which are tight up to logarithmic factors.
This is joint work with Arnaud de Mesmay and Hugo Parlier

Friday 11 April 2025 -- 11am, chalk room

Andrea Monti (MPI, Bonn)

Title: A geometric boundary for the moduli space of grafted surfaces
Abstract:Let S be a closed orientable surface of genus at least 2. We consider three classes of geometric structures on S: hyperbolic metrics, singular flat metrics arising from half-translation surfaces, and those obtained via grafting — an operation introduced by Thurston to study complex projective structures. We show that these three families of metrics can be unified within a single connected moduli space. In particular, we prove that half-translation surfaces arise as geometric limits (up to rescaling) of grafted surfaces. Our proof relies on recent results on the orthogeodesic foliation constructed by Calderon and Farre.

Monday 31 March 2025 -- 4pm, chalk room

Elia Portnoy (MIT)

Title: Engulfing Riemannian balls
Abstract: We discuss constructions of (n-1)-volume decreasing diffeomorphisms from a standard n-dimensional ball to subsets of R^n that are diffeomorphic to a ball.

Friday 28 March 2025 -- 11am, S6B

Dragomir Saric (CUNY)

Title: The finite-area holomorphic quadratic differentials and classification of infinite Riemann surfaces
Abstract:An infinite Riemann surface is closest to a compact Riemann surface if it does not support a Green’s function. This condition is equivalent to the ergodicity of the geodesic flow. We give another characterization of this class of Riemann surfaces using the space of holomorphic quadratic differentials and prove that the set of holomorphic quadratic differentials with single cylinders is dense among all holomorphic quadratic differentials.
Then, we show that a larger class of Riemann surfaces without non-constant harmonic functions with finite Dirichlet integral is quasiconformally invariant. The proof uses the trajectory structure of finite-area holomorphic quadratic differentials.

Monday 17 March 2025 -- 4pm, chalk room

James Farre (MPI MiS, Leipzig)

Title: Affine laminations and coaffine representations
Abstract: A surface subgroup $\Gamma$ of $PSL(4,\mathbb R)$ is convex cocompact if it preserves a nice convex set in projective 3-space on which it acts with compact quotient. The cases that $\Gamma$ preserves a non-degenerate quadratic form on $\mathbb R^4$ have been well-studied and correspond to “quasi-Fuchsian” 3-manifolds locally modeled on hyperbolic or anti de Sitter 3-space. In this talk, we study surface group actions on coaffine 3-space—another subgeometry of projective geometry. After an introduction to coaffine geometry, I will describe the structure of the boundary of the convex core associated to a convex cocompact surface group action on coaffine space: it is a 2-dimensional convex projective structure bent along a geodesic lamination according to an affine measure. This is joint work with Martin Bobb.

Monday 10 March 2025 -- 4pm, MNO 1.050 (slides room)

Adam Chalumeau (IRMA, Strasbourg University)

Title: On Markowitz's Pseudo-Distance on Conformal Spacetimes
Abstract: I will present a conformally invariant pseudo-distance on spacetimes, introduced by Markowitz in the 1980s as an analogue of Kobayashi's pseudo-distance in projective geometry. Specifically, I will address the following questions: When is Markowitz's pseudo-distance definite? When is it complete? What are its geodesics? Is it Gromov-hyperbolic? These questions are partially understood in various settings, including compact spacetimes, conformally flat globally hyperbolic maximal spacetimes, and convex domains of the Einstein universe, such as regular domains in Minkowski space.

Monday 3 March 2025 -- 4pm, chalk room

Katie Gravel (University of Chicago)

Title: Mathematical Relativity and Static Manifolds
Abstract: The mathematical study of relativity has produced both physical insights and results that are of interest from a purely mathematical perspective. In this talk, I will discuss some core results in the field, namely the Positive Mass Theorem and the Riemannian Penrose Inequality. Additionally, I will discuss some applications to a uniqueness theorem for static manifolds and my own work in progress expanding on this result.

Monday 24 Febuary 2025 -- 4pm, chalk room

Fedya Manin (University of Toronto)

Title: Milnor invariants of thick links
Abstract: The thickness of a smooth embedding is the maximal radius at which the normal exponential map is still an embedding. We study how the thickness controls isotopy invariants of links (embeddings of a disjoint union of spheres, possibly of different dimensions): the Milnor invariants, which were first defined by Milnor for classical links but have a natural extension to higher dimensions. Depending on the dimensions, we get either an exponential or a polynomial bound, both of which are sharp. Joint work with Rafał Komendarczyk and Robin Koytcheff.

Thursday 30 January 2025 -- 2:45pm, MNO 1.020 (slides room)

Vincent Pecastaing (Université Côte d'Azur)

Title: Rigidity of higher-rank lattice actions
Abstract: Lattices in semi-simple Lie groups of rank at least 2 — e.g. SL(n,Z) for n>2 — form a class of discrete groups known for having remarkable linear rigidity properties. Notably, their finite dimensional representations are determined by those of the ambient Lie group they live in — e.g. SL(n,R) in the case of SL(n,Z). This is Margulis' super-rigidity theorem (1974). Motivated by an ergodic version of this theorem, an ambitious program initiated by Gromov and Zimmer in the 1980s aims to understand "non-linear representations" of such lattices into diffeomorphism groups of closed manifolds, or in other words, the differentiable actions of such lattices on closed manifolds.
I will briefly review the history and geometric origins of this program. I will then focus on rigidity results about actions of lattices which preserve non-unimodular geometric structures, such as conformal or projective structures, and will mention open directions and ongoing works for actions on other parabolic geometries (j.w. Thang Nguyen).

Thursday 16 January 2025 -- 3pm, MNO 1.020 (slides room)

Morgan le Delliou (Lisbon U.)

Title: Gauge theory approach to Teleparallel Gravities: TEGR and STEGR
Abstract: Initiated with a question on the mathematical nature of the connection in the so-called "translations gauge theory" formulation of Teleparallel Equivalent to General Relativity (TEGR) Theory, our explorations led us to consider a novel approach using a Cartan connection.
The mathematically admitted underlying structure of a gauge theory for a symmetry group $G$ relies on a principal $G$-bundle on which is chosen a connection (the gauge field).
The bundle formalism with connection allows to distinguish in the structure of TEGR as "translations gauge theory" that the algebra of translations is indeed necessary to build the torsion, which could resemble the field strength of that gravity. However, the corresponding field clearly does not present the structure of a connection.
Nevertheless, the translation field can be integrated in a Cartan connection, as shown in our approach, which allows to keep the interpretation of the translation field as related to a connection.
The coupling to matter can be performed thanks to a Cartan connection and a theorem by Sharpe to obtain a consistent and complete description of TEGR that confirms its difference with the usual structures of gauge theories.
The approach to STGR involves a closer examination of bundle reduction and soldering form that appear to mark the specificity of gravity. Although the frame field remains the best candidate for what could be recognised as a gauge field, the introduction of a distinct soldering form through a bundle reduction giving birth to the metric on the base leads to a specific structure. To bring such a framework closer to a theory with a connection will require more investigations.

Monday 9 December 2024 -- 4pm, chalk room

Teo Gil Moreno de Mora Sardà (Université Paris-Est Créteil and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Title: Decomposition of complete 3-manifolds of positive scalar curvature with subquadratic decay
Abstract: A fundamental question in the study of 3-dimensional manifolds consists in understanding the topological structure of 3-manifolds that admit a Riemannian metric of positive scalar curvature, known as PSC manifolds. In the late 1970s, results by Schoen and Yau based on the theory of minimal surfaces and, in parallel, methods based on the Dirac operator method developed by Gromov and Lawson, led to the classification of closed orientable PSC 3-manifolds: they are precisely those that decompose as a connected sum of spherical manifolds and S2xS1 summands.
We will present a decomposition result for non-compact PSC 3-manifolds: if a complete Riemannian 3-manifold has positive scalar curvature with subquadratic decay at infinity, then it decomposes as a possibly infinite connected sum of spherical manifolds and S2xS1. We will also discuss the optimality of this result, which generalises a recent theorem of Gromov and Wang using a more topological approach.
It is a joint work with Florent Balacheff and Stéphane Sabourau.

Monday 2 December 2024 -- 4pm, chalk room

Franco Vargas Pallette (IHES)

Title: W-volume for domains with circular boundary
Abstract: We will describe a formulation for the determinant of the Laplacian for conformal metrics in domains with circular boundary in terms of hyperbolic volume. As an application, we will see a bound on renormalized volume for classical Schottky uniformizations and a formulation of universal Liouville action in terms of hyperbolic volume. Based in joint work with Jeff Brock.

Monday 25 November 2024 -- 3.30pm, MNO 1.020 (slides room)

Pieter Belmans (Luxembourg)

Title: A topological quantum field theory in mirror symmetry
Abstract: I will introduce graph potentials, a class of Laurent polynomials defined using trivalent graphs, and explain how to construct a 2d TQFT out of this. The values of this TQFT for closed surfaces are certain power series, with a combinatorial interpretation. In the second half, I will explain how all of this is related to enumerative mirror symmetry for moduli spaces of vector bundles on compact Riemann surfaces, without assuming any prior knowledge. This is joint work with Sergey Galkin and Swarnava Mukhopadhyay.

Monday 18 November 2024 -- 4pm, chalk room

Sven Sandfeldt (KTH)

Title: Centralizer rigidity and classification
Abstract: The centralizer of a smooth diffeomorphism consists of all diffeomorphisms that commute with it. A conjecture by Smale asserts that generic diffeomorphisms only commute with themselves, so its centralizer coincides with the iterates of the diffeomorphism. As a consequence, the diffeomorphisms with a large centralizer should be rare within the space of all diffeomorphisms. In this talk, I will discuss recent progress towards classifying the possible centralizers that can occur for diffeomorphisms and rigidity phenomenons for diffeomorphisms with large centralizers.

Monday 11 November 2024 -- 4pm, chalk room

Mitul Islam (MPI MiS, Leipzig)

Title: Morse geodesics in convex projective geometry
Abstract: The (Hilbert metric) geometry of properly convex domains generalizes real hyperbolic geometry. This generalization is far from the Riemannian notion of non-positive curvature, but they share some intriguing similarities. I will explore this connection from a coarse geometry viewpoint. In this talk, I will focus on Morse geodesics, which are the coarsely “negatively-curved" directions. We will see that this "negative curvature" can be characterized entirely using linear algebraic data (singular values of matrices) or projective geometric data (regularity of boundary). This is joint work with Theodore Weisman.

Monday 4 November 2024 -- 4pm, chalk room

Partha Ghosh (IMJ-PRG)

Title: Seiberg–Witten equations in all dimensions
Abstract: In the fall of 1994 Edward Witten announced a “new gauge theory of $4$-manifolds”, capable of giving results analogous to the earlier theory of Donaldson, but where the computations involved are “at least a thousand times easier” (Taubes). The equations involved in this new gauge theory are well known as the Seiberg—Witten equations. The equations introduced by Witten led quickly to a revolution in $3$- and $4$-dimensional differential geometry and they remain at the forefront of research today. Shortly after their appearance, Witten showed how one could count solutions to the equations, defining an invariant of the underlying smooth $4$-manifold. Despite a lot of effort, higher-dimensional generalisations of the Seiberg—Witten equations were unknown till now. In this talk we present an elliptic system of equations over a $Spin^{\mathbb{C}}$-manifold of any dimension which generalise the Seiberg–Witten equations in the cases $n = 3$, $4$. If time permits, we describe modified versions of these equations in dimensions $6$, $7$ and $8$, which make sense on manifolds with $SU(3)$, $G_2$ and $Spin(7)$ structures respectively.

Monday 28 October 2024 -- 4pm, chalk room

Xenia Flamm (MPI MiS, Leipzig)

Title: Hilbert geometry over non-archimedean ordered fields
Abstract: The Hilbert metric is a distance defined on properly convex subsets of real projective space. It generalizes the hyperbolic metric in Klein's model of hyperbolic space, where the convex set is the unit ball. The study of degenerations in Hilbert geometry naturally leads to replacing the reals by a non-archimedean ordered field. The aim of this talk is to introduce convex sets over such fields and describe their Hilbert metrics through several examples. This is joint work with Anne Parreau.

Monday 14 October 2024 -- 4pm, MNO 1.020 (slides room)

Ilia Smilga (University of Oxford)

Title: Distribution of minimal surfaces in compact hyperbolic 3-manifolds
Abstract: In a classical work, Bowen and Margulis proved the equidistribution of closed geodesics in any hyperbolic manifold. Together with Jeremy Kahn and Vladimir Marković, we asked ourselves what happens in a three-manifold if we replace curves by surfaces. The natural analog of a closed geodesic is then a minimal surface, as totally geodesic surfaces exist only very rarely. Nevertheless, it still makes sense (for various reasons, in particular to ensure uniqueness of the minimal representative) to restrict our attention to surfaces that are almost totally geodesic.
The statistics of these surfaces then depend very strongly on how we order them: by genus, or by area. If we focus on surfaces whose *area* tends to infinity, we conjecture that they do indeed equidistribute; we proved a partial result in this direction. If, however, we focus on surfaces whose *genus* tends to infinity, the situation is completely opposite: we proved that they then accumulate onto the totally geodesic surfaces of the manifold (if there are any).

Monday 7 October 2024 -- 4pm, chalk room

Charles Frances (IRMA, Strasbourg)

Title: Conformal Singularities
Abstract: In this talk, we will consider conformal embeddings between pseudo-Riemannian manifolds, which are only defined outside a "singular locus". We will try to understand under which circumstances this singular set is removable, namely one can extend the embedding across it. In the Riemannian setting (and dimension at least 3), the situation is fairly well understood when the singular locus has small Hausdorff dimension.
We will also consider the problem in Lorentzian signature, and present some rigidity results in this framework.

Monday 23 September 2024 -- 4pm, MNO 1.020

Sergey Avvakumov (Weizmann)

Title: Inequalities of isoperimetric flavor
Abstract: I will discuss various geometric inequalities involving Gromov's filling radius, Urysohn width, systole, volume, and other attributes of metric spaces. One of them will be the boxing inequality: a compact subset $X$ of a Banach space can be homotoped to an $(m-1)$-dimensional subcomplex by a homotopy whose $m$th Hausdorff content is bounded in terms of the $m$th Hausdorff content of $X$. This is similar to the isoperimetric inequality, with the main difference that in the isoperimetric inequality the $(m+1)$th Hausdorff measure of the homotopy is bounded. Based on a joint work with A. Nabutovsky.

Monday 1 July 2024 -- 4pm, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Homin Lee (Northwestern University)

Title: Higher rank lattice actions on manifold with positive entropy
Abstract: Higher rank lattices, e.g., $\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{Z})$ in $\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{R})$ with $n$ greater than $2$ or $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{Z}[\sqrt{2}])$ in product of $2$ copies of $\mathrm{SL}_{2}(\mathbb{R})$, are expected to be rigid in many cases. In this talk, we will discuss about rigid phenomena of smooth actions on manifolds by such lattices, so called Zimmer program. We start with motivation and focus on how measure plays an important role in the proof. The talk is based on the work with A. Brown. Some part of the talk will be based on the on-going work with A. Brown and F. Rodriguez Hertz.

Monday 17 June 2024 -- 4pm, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Alex Moriani (Université Côte d'Azur)

Title: Polygonal surfaces in pseudo-hyperbolic spaces
Abstract: A polygonal surface in the pseudo-hyperbolic space is a complete maximal surface bounded by a lightlike polygon with finitely many vertices. These surfaces admit several characterizations : being asymptotically flat or having finite total curvature. In this talk we will explain some constructions coming from nonpositive curvature geometry to prove the equivalence, for a maximal surface, between being polygonal and having finite total curvature.

Wednesday 12 June 2024 -- 4pm, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Georg Gruetzner (University of Luxembourg)

Title: Representation theory of hyperbolic groups
Abstract: Does every hyperbolic group admit a uniformly bounded representation with a proper cocycle of "optimal" growth? In this talk I will take on the challenge to convince you, why this question is interesting and why one may (or may not) believe in it. I will assume minimal background knowledge in representation theory. Instead, I will take you on a ride through almost 150 years of representation theory, starting with Frobenius, and Weyl on compact groups, over Harish-Chandra's work on semisimple Lie groups to modern research on Kazhdan's property (T) and Haagerup's property.

Monday 3 June 2024 -- 4pm, MNO 1.020

Carl Lutz (TU Berlin)

Title: The discrete uniformization map
Abstract: In the last decades a rich theory of discrete conformal equivalence has been developed, which is closely related to circle patterns and hyperbolic polyhedra. The corresponding discrete uniformization theorems provide a map from the space of discrete conformal classes to the Teichmüller space of the underlying surface. In this talk I will give an overview of different approaches to discrete conformal equivalence and discuss what is known about the discrete uniformization map.

Monday 27 May 2024 -- 4pm, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Damien Gayet (Institut Fourier)

Title: Local topology of random projective complex hypersurfaces
Abstract: The generic complex projective hypersurfaces benefit a magical property: their topology depends only on the degree of a defining polynomial. If we fix a small ball and look at the trace of the hypersurface in it, then of course this property no longer holds. However, if the hypersurface is taken at random, I will explain that for large degrees, the average local topology remembers the global one.

Friday 24 May 2024 -- 2:30pm, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Rym Smaï (University of Strasbourg)

Title: An explicit construction of the maximal extension of a globally hyperbolic conformally flat spacetime
Abstract: The physical theory of general relativity suggests that our universe is modelized by a four dimensional manifold equipped with a metric of signature (-,+,+,+), called Lorentzian metric, which satisfies Einstein equations. In 1969, Choquet-Bruhat and Geroch established the existence of a unique maximal development of a given initial data for the Einstein equations. These solutions fit within the general framework of globally hyperbolic spacetimes. There is a partial order relation on globally hyperbolic spacetimes. Following the work of Choquet-Bruhat and Geroch, the questions of the existence and the uniqueness of a maximal extension of a globally hyperbolic spacetime arise naturally. In this talk, I will discuss these questions in the context of globally hyperbolic conformally flat spacetimes. In 2013, C. Rossi positively answered both questions in this specific context. However, her proof has the unsatisfactory feature that it does not provide any description of the maximal extension. I will present an alternative, constructive proof of this result. This approach is based on the concept of enveloping space, within which the maximal extension will be realized. After defining the enveloping space, I will illustrate this concept with some examples.

Monday 13 May 2024 -- 4pm, MNO 1.020

Peter Buser (EPFL)

Title: Algorithms around simple closed geodesics on hyperbolic surfaces
Abstract: Let S be a compact hyperbolic surface. In contrast to the general case the simple closed geodesics on S are not dense. Hence there are—in general quite small—“forbidden regions” where no simple closed geodesic can enter. How big are these regions, how do they look like, can we visualise them? The talk shall be about algorithms that enumerate geodesics and algorithms that draw them. An obstacle is numerical accuracy: is what we see in the outcoming figures really what there is? We present an approach to accuracy based on length decreasing algorithms. With the help of an auxiliary triangle group we hope to extend the method to the computation of the matrices of the Fuchsian group that represents S. The research is jointly with Antonio Costa, Hugo Parlier and Klaus-Dieter Semmler.

Monday 6 May 2024 -- 4pm chalk room MNO 1st floor

Bruno Dular (University of Luxembourg)

Title: Convex co-compact hyperbolic three-manifolds are determined by their pleating lamination
Abstract: At the center of a convex co-compact hyperbolic three-manifold lies its convex core, which is responsible for most of its geometry. The boundary of the convex core consists of disjoint pleated surfaces: hyperbolic surfaces that are pleated along a geodesic lamination, with the amount of bending recorded by a transverse measure. Thurston conjectured that the geometry of the three-manifold is uniquely determined by this induced pleating measured lamination. In a joint work with Jean-Marc Schlenker, we prove that the pleating lamination indeed determines the geometry of the three-manifold. This provides a parametrization of the deformation spaces of convex co-compact hyperbolic three-manifolds by internal geometric data, in contrast with the Ahlfors-Bers parametrization by the conformal structure at infinity.

Monday 29 April 2024 -- 4pm chalk room MNO 1st floor

Martin Mion-Mouton (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig)

Title: Lorentzian metrics with conical singularities and bi-foliations of the torus
Abstract: The constant curvature Lorentzian metrics having a finite number of conical singularities offer new examples of geometric structures on the torus, naturally generalizing the analogous Riemannian case. In the latter, works of Troyanov show that the data of the conformal structure and of the angles at the singularities entirely classify the metrics with conical singularities. In this talk, we will introduce the Lorentzian metrics with conical singularities and construct some examples, and we will present a work in progress concerning their classification. This classification is linked with topological equivalences between pairs of transverse foliations, and with the dynamics of interval exchange maps.

Monday 22 April 2024 -- 4pm chalk room MNO 1st floor

Qiongling Li 李琼玲 (Nankai University)

Title: Index and total curvature of minimal surfaces in nonpositively curved symmetric spaces
Abstract: We prove two main theorems about equivariant minimal surfaces in an arbitrary nonpositively curved symmetric spaces extending classical results on minimal surfaces in Euclidean space. First, we show that a complete equivariant branched immersed minimal surface in a nonpositively curved symmetric space of finite total curvature must be of finite Morse index. It is a generalization of the theorem by Fischer-Colbrie, Gulliver-Lawson, and Nayatani for complete minimal surfaces in Euclidean space. Secondly, we show that a complete equivariant minimal surface in a nonpositively curved symmetric space is of finite total curvature if and only if it arises from a wild harmonic bundle over a compact Riemann surface with finite punctures. Moreover, we deduce the Jorge-Meeks type formula of the total curvature and show it is an integer multiple of $2\pi/N$ for $N$ only depending on the symmetric space. It is a generalization of the theorem by Chern-Osserman for complete minimal surfaces in Euclidean n-space. This is joint work with Takuro Mochizuki (RIMS).

Monday 8 April 2024 -- 4pm chalk room MNO 1st floor

Lyosha Balitskiy Лёша Балицкий (University of Luxembourg)

Title: Systolic freedom and rigidity modulo 2
Abstract: Given a closed $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold $M$, let us define its systole as the length of a shortest loop that does not bound a surface in $M$; and its cosystole as the smallest area of an $(n-1)$-dimensional submanifold that does not bound an $n$-dimensional domain (with mod 2 coefficients). Answering a question of Gromov, in 1998 Freedman exhibited the first examples of manifolds in which the product of the systole and the cosystole cannot be bounded from above by the volume of $M$; this manifests the phenomenon of systolic freedom. In a joint work with Hannah Alpert and Larry Guth, we showed that Freedman's examples are almost as "free" as possible, by bounding the systolic product by the volume raised to the power of $1+\epsilon$. I will give an overview of the systolic freedom phenomenon (including its connection to quantum error correcting codes), and say a couple of words about proofs.

Monday 25 March 2024 -- 4pm, MNO 1.020

Wayne Lam 林偉揚 (University of Luxembourg)

Title: Hyperbolic discrete Laplacian
Abstract: The Laplace operator on a Riemannian manifold is a fundamental tool to study the geometry of the manifold. Inspired by electric networks, Laplacians on graphs are defined with edge weights playing the role of conductance. When the edge weights are constant, the graph Laplacian becomes the combinatorial Laplacian and is known to reveal rich combinatorial information of the graph. Given a graph embedded on a surface, it is natural to consider a geometric Laplacian, where edge weights are adapted to the geometry. For the 1-skeleton graph of a geodesic triangulation on a Euclidean surface, there is a “cotangent formula” relating the edge weights to the Euclidean metric. It is known to connect with various problems, e.g. deformations of circle patterns, Delaunay decomposition, discrete harmonic maps and the Y-Delta transform in graphs. In the talk, we introduce the analogue for hyperbolic surfaces.

Monday 11 March 2024 -- 4pm

Filippo Mazzoli (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig)

Title: Volume, entropy, and diameter in $\mathrm{SO}(p,q+1)$-higher Teichmüller spaces
Abstract: The notion of $\mathbb{H}^{p,q}$-convex cocompact representations was introduced by Danciger, Guéritaud, and Kassel and provides a unifying framework for several interesting classes of discrete subgroups of the orthogonal groups $\mathrm{SO}(p,q+1)$, such as convex cocompact hyperbolic manifolds and maximal globally hyperbolic anti-de Sitter spacetimes of negative Euler characteristic. By recent works of Seppi-Smith-Toulisse and Beyrer-Kassel, we now know that any such representation admits a unique invariant maximal spacelike $p$-dimensional manifold inside the pseudo-Riemannian hyperbolic space $\mathbb{H}^{p,q}$, and that the space of $\mathbb{H}^{p,q}$-convex cocompact representations of a group $\Gamma$ consists of a union of connected components of the associated $\mathrm{SO}(p,q+1)$-character variety. In this talk, I will describe a recent joint work with Gabriele Viaggi in which we provide various applications for the existence of invariant maximal spacelike submanifolds. These include a rigidity result for the pseudo-Riemannian critical exponent (which answers affirmatively to a question of Glorieux-Monclair), a comparison between entropy and volume, and several compactness and finiteness criteria in this framework.

Monday 26 February 2024 -- 4pm chalk room MNO 1st floor

Thiziri Moulla (Université de Montpellier & EPFL)

Title: On the minimale volume entropy of finitely generated groups
Abstract: In this talk I'll speak about the minimal volume entropy of finitely presented groups and I'll give some properties. After this, we will see a nother concept of minimal volume entropy given here for geometrically finite groups, and then I'll present a comparative analysis of these two notions. Finally, I'll introduce a class of groups called Soft Groups and its particularities in the study.

Monday 19 February 2024 -- 4pm, MNO 1.020

Baptiste Louf (CNRS & Université de Bordeaux)

Title: Combinatorial maps and hyperbolic surfaces in high genus
Abstract: In this talk, we consider two models of random geometry of surfaces in high genus: combinatorial maps and hyperbolic surfaces. The geometric properties of random hyperbolic surfaces under the Weil–Petersson measure as the genus tends to infinity have been studied for around 15 years now, building notably on enumerative results of Mirzakhani. On the other hand, random combinatorial maps were first studied in the planar/finite genus case, and then in the high genus regime starting 10 years ago with unicellular (i.e. one-faced) maps. In a joint work with Svante Janson, we noticed some numerical coincidence regarding the counting of short closed curves in unicellular maps/hyperbolic surfaces in high genus (comparing it to results of Mirzakhani and Petri). This leads us to conjecture some similarities between the two models in the limit, and raises several other open questions.

Friday 26 January 2024 -- 10:30, 6A MNO 6st floor

Javier Martínez-Aguinaga (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

Title: Distributions on manifolds and convex integration
Abstract: In many contexts, the resolution of a geometric problem can be reduced to studying a condition coming form the underlying Algebraic Topology. If this condition satisfies the "h-principle", then there exist techniques to solve this problem, such as Convex Integration. In this talk we will provide a historical overview of this branch of Mathematics, motivating it through visual examples with special emphasis on Convex Integration. Then we will use this method to tackle classification questions about maximal growth distributions on smooth manifolds. This is a joint work with Álvaro del Pino (Utrecht University).

Monday 22 April 2023 -- 4 pm, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Marie Trin (IRMAR, University of Rennes)

Title: Counting arcs of the same type
Abstract: Two closed curves on a hyperbolic surface are said to be of the same type if they differ from a mapping class. The question of counting curves of the same type with bounded length has been studied by M.Mirzakhani who showed that the counting is polynomial into the length. M.Mirzakhani's results were recovered and extended by Erlandsson-Souto, proving convergence theorems for certain sequences of measures. In 2022, N.Bell obtained results similar to those of M.Mirzakhani for counting arcs (of the same type) in surfaces with boundary. We will introduce the method based on the convergence of measures for curves counting and then look at how to adapt these methods to the case of arcs.

Monday, 27 November 2023 -- 4 pm, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Ognjen Tošić (University of Oxford)

Title: Harmonic projections in negative curvature
Abstract: A classical question in the theory of harmonic maps is the Schoen--Li--Wang conjecture: given a quasi-isometry f between rank one symmetric spaces, does there exist a harmonic map at a finite distance from f. This question was ultimately resolved by Benoist--Hulin, who in fact proved this existence for arbitrary quasi-isometries between pinched Hadamard manifolds. A natural class of maps to study outside the scope of their work are the nearest-point retractions to convex sets. In this talk we show the existence of harmonic maps at a finite distance from nearest-point retractions under suitable conditions on the convex set.

Tuesday, 21 November 2023 -- 1 pm, chalk room MNO 1st floor

(Zeno) Zheng Huang (CUNY, Graduate Center)

Title: On the CMC foliation problem in a class of almost Fuchsian manifolds
Abstract: An almost Fuchsian manifold is a special type of quasi-Fuchsian hyperbolic three-manifolds: it admits a closed minimal surface of principal curvature less than one in absolute value. Thurston conjectured that any almost Fuchsian manifold is foliated by closed CMC surfaces. Recently Choudhury, Mazzoli and Seppi proved the existence of an open neighborhood of the Fuchsian locus (size of the neighborhood depends on the Fuchsian point) such that any point in the neighborhood is foliated by monotone CMC surfaces. I will discuss, in joint work with L. Lin (Santa Cruz) and Z. Zhang (Sydney), we confirm the conjecture for a subclass (which forms a uniform neighborhood of the Fuchsian locus) of almost Fuchsian manifolds.

Monday, 13 November 2023 -- 4 pm, MNO 1.010

Clément Legrand-Duchesne (LaBRI, University of Bordeaux)

Title: Reconfiguration of square-tiled surfaces
Abstract: A square-tiled surface is a special case of a quadrangulation of a surface, that can be encoded as a pair of permutations in $S_n \times S_n$ that generates a transitive subgroup of $S_n$. Square-tiled surfaces can be classified into different strata according to the total angles around their conical singularities. Among other parameters, strata fix the genus and the size of the quadrangulation. Generating a random square-tiled surface in a fixed stratum is a widely open question. We propose a Markov chain approach using "shearing moves" (natural reconfiguration operation preserving the stratum of a square-tiled surface). In a subset of strata, we prove that this Markov chain is irreducible and has diameter $\mathrm{O}(n^2)$, where n is the number of squares in the quadrangulation.

Monday, 30 October 2023 -- 4 pm, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Eduardo Reyes (MPI, Bonn)

Title: Approximating hyperbolic lattices by cubulations
Abstract: The fundamental group of an n-dimensional closed hyperbolic manifold admits a natural isometric action on the hyperbolic space H^n by Deck transformations. If n is at most 3 or the manifold has infinitely many totally geodesic codimension-1 immersed hypersurfaces, then the group also acts isometrically on CAT(0) cube complexes, which are spaces of combinatorial nature. I will talk about a joint work with Nic Brody in which we approximate the asymptotic geometry of the action on H^n by the actions on these complexes, solving a conjecture of Futer and Wise. In the 3-dimensional case, some ingredients are a recent result of Al Assal about limits of measures on the 2-plane Grassmannian of the manifold induced by immersed minimal surfaces, and the work of Seppi about minimal disks in H^3 with prescribed quasicircles as limit sets.

Monday, 23 October 2023 -- 4 pm, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Karin Melnick (University of Luxembourg)

Title: Compact, Lorentzian conformally flat manifolds
Abstract: Any closed, flat Riemannian manifold is finitely covered by the torus, by Bieberbach’s classical theorem. Similar classifications have been pursued for closed, Riemannian conformally flat manifolds, notably by Fried and Goldman, as well as for closed, flat Lorentzian manifolds, notably by Carrière and D’Albo. I will discuss current work with Nakyung Lee and Goldman towards classifying closed, Lorentzian conformally flat manifolds when they have nilpotent holonomy.

Wednesday, 18 October 2023 -- 1 pm, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Danyu Zhang (University of Luxembourg)

Title: Classification problems of (fibrewise) Anosov diffeomorphisms
Abstract: A fibrewise Anosov diffeomorphism is a fibre-preserving self diffeomorphism on a fibre bundle that preserves an invariant hyperbolic (contracting and expanding) splitting along the fibres. When the base is a point, it reduces to a usual Anosov diffeomorphism. We give a generalization of the Franks-Manning classification of Anosov diffeomorphisms on tori, that is, every fibrewise Anosov diffeomorphism on a principal torus bundle is topologically conjugate to a map that is linear in the fibres. If time permits, we will also discuss manifolds that admit Anosov diffeomorphisms.

Monday, 9 October 2023 -- 4 pm, MNO 1.030

Ivan Yakovlev (LaBRI, University of Bordeaux)

Title: Studying square-tiled surfaces combinatorially
Abstract: Square-tiled surfaces are surfaces glued from a finite number of squares respecting some global monodromy constraint. Their asymptotic enumeration is equivalent to computing the volumes of the moduli spaces of translation surfaces, which are necessary for the dynamics applications. Interestingly, these volumes have been computed using an algebraic approach (intersection theory). I will present an alternative, purely combinatorial approach to this problem. This approach relies on the study of metric ribbon graphs and gives a refined count of square-tiled surfaces according to their number of cylinders. It also produces some neat questions at the intersection of combinatorics, geometry and topology.

Monday, 2 October 2023 -- 4 pm, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Niklas Affolter (Technical University Berlin)

Title: TCD maps
Abstract: A TCD map is a map from a triple crossing diagram to projective space, satisfying an incidence requirement. We introduce projective invariants and dynamics on TCD maps. The invariants allow for several existence and uniqueness theorems. We explain how the invariants relate to cluster algebras, and how dynamics relate to mutation in cluster algebra theory. Conveniently, TCD maps include as special cases a large number of known maps, including various objects from discrete differential geometry, discrete integrable systems, statistical mechanics and even projective flag configurations considered in higher Teichmüller theory. We also introduce a second class of invariants for TCD maps, which are certain ratios of dimer partition functions. These are not just projective invariants, but also invariants of motion. We will look a bit more at example of flag-configurations from higher Teichmüller theory, and present some related (projective) geometric questions.

Friday, 29 September 2023 -- 9:30 am, MNO 1.030

Abderrahim Mesbah (University of Luxembourg)

Title: The induced metric and the bending lamination of the boundary of the convex core of quasi-Fuchsian manifolds
Abstract: Let $S$ be a closed hyperbolic surface and $M=S \times (0,1)$. Suppose $h$ is a Riemannian metric on $S$ with curvature strictly greater than $−1$, $h_*$ is a Riemannian metric on $S$ with curvature strictly less than $1$, and every contractible closed geodesic with respect to $h_∗$ has length strictly greater than $2\pi$. Let $L$ be a measured lamination on $S$ such that every closed leaf has weight strictly less than $\pi$. Then, we prove the existence of a convex hyperbolic metric $g$ on the interior of $M$ that induces the Riemannian metric $h$ (respectively $h_∗$) as the first (respectively third) fundamental form on $S \times \{ 0 \}$ and induces a pleated surface structure on $S \times \{ 1 \}$ with bending lamination $L$. This statement remains valid even in limiting cases where the curvature of $h$ is constant and equal to $−1$. Additionally, when considering a conformal class $c$ on $S$, we show that there exists a convex hyperbolic metric $g$ on the interior of $M$ that induces $c$ on $S \times \{ 0 \}$, which is viewed as one component of the ideal boundary at infinity of $(M,g)$, and induces a pleated surface structure on $S \times \{ 1 \}$ with bending lamination $L$. Our proof differs from previous work by Lecuire for these two last cases. Moreover, when we consider a lamination which is small enough, in a sense that we will define, and a hyperbolic metric, we show that the metric on the interior of $M$ that realizes these data is unique.

21 September 2023 -- 10 am, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Alex Nolte (Rice University / Georgia Tech)

Title: Leaves of properly convex foliated projective structures
Abstract: In one of the few cases where qualitative descriptions of geometric structures giving rise to a higher Teichmüller space is known, Guichard and Wienhard showed in 2008 that PSL(4,R) Hitchin representations can be understood in terms of certain projective structures on unit tangent bundles of surfaces. These projective structures come with natural equivariant foliations of their developed images by properly convex domains in projective lines and planes. The family of leaves of the codimension-1 foliation gives an interesting and mysterious invariant of these Hitchin representations. I will discuss some recent results on these leaves. For instance, except in the Fuchsian case, there must be many projectively non-equivalent leaves and there is a strong sense in which no leaf can have many symmetries.

Tuesday, 4 July 2023 -- 11 am, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Clara Aldana (Universidad del Norte)

Title: Isospectral and quasi-isospectral Schrodinger operators
Abstract: On this talk I will first briefly talk about the isospectral problem in geometry and about some known results of isospectral Strum-Liouville operators on a finite interval in the simplified form of a Schroedinger operator. I will introduce quasi-isospectrality as a generalization of isospectrality. I will mention the history of the problem and how to construct quasi-isospectral potentials. I will present what we know so far about them. The work presented here is still on-going joint work with Camilo Perez.

Tuesday, 27 June 2023 -- 11 am, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Jeffrey Danciger (University of Texas at Austin)

Title: Eigenvalue asymmetry for convex real projective surfaces
Abstract: A convex real projective surface is one obtained as the quotient of a properly convex open set in the projective plane by a discrete subgroup of SL(3,R), called the holonomy group, that preserves this convex set. The most basic examples are hyperbolic surfaces, for which the convex set is bounded by an ellipse, and the holonomy group is conjugate into SO(2,1). In this case, the eigenvalues of elements of the holonomy group are symmetric. More generally, the asymmetry of the eigenvalues of the holonomy group is a natural measure of how far a convex real projective surface is from being hyperbolic. We study the problem of determining which elements (or generally geodesic currents) may have maximal eigenvalue asymmetry. We will present some limited initial results that we hope may be suggestive of a bigger picture. Joint work with Florian Stecker.

Monday, 19 June 2023 -- 3 pm, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Jing Tao (University of Oklahoma)

Title: Classification of isometries of the Thurston metric
Abstract: In 1986, Thurston introduced an asymmetric metric on Teichmuller space using Lipschitz maps between marked hyperbolic surfaces. It is known that the mapping class group is the isometry group of Teichmuller space equipped with this metric. We give a classification of the isometries of the Thurston metric in terms of the Nielsen-Thurston type. Unlike the Teichmuller metric, partial pseudo-Anosov maps are hyperbolic isometries of the Thurston metric, which we demonstrate by constructing geodesic axes for such maps. This is joint with Camille Horbez.

Tuesday, 13 June 2023 -- 11 am, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Martin Bobb (University of Heidelberg)

Title: Simple elliptic elements in many euler class zero PSL(2,R) surface group representations
Abstract: The character variety of a genus g surface group representations into PSL(2,R) has connected components distinguished by the euler class, an integer in the interval [2-2g, 2g-2]. Goldman conjectured that on each of these components (with the exception of the maximal two), the mapping class group should act ergodically. We focus on those representations of euler class zero, and use new techniques to show that on a neighborhood of the reducible representations (excepting the identity), every representation sends a simple closed curve to an elliptic element. An observation of Bowditch and Goldman relates the existence of such an element to the dynamical question of ergodicity. Along the way we find and describe a rich action of the Torelli group on a real vector space of dimension 2g-2. Joint work with James Farre and Peter Smillie.

Tuesday, 6 June 2023 -- 11 am, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Yan Mary He (University of Oklahoma)

Title: Nielsen realization for some big mapping class groups
Abstract: In this talk, we show that most compactly supported big mapping class groups cannot be realized as a subgroup of the homeomorphism group. Time permitting, we will also prove the non-realizability of the mapping class group of the plane minus a Cantor set or the sphere minus a Cantor set. This is joint work with Lei Chen.

Tuesday, 30 May 2023 -- 11 am, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Stefano Riolo (Università di Bologna)

Title: Hyperbolic 4-manifolds of low volume
Abstract: There is a natural interest in hyperbolic manifolds of low volume, and this talk addresses dimension four. As opposite to dimension n = 3 where Thurston's hyperbolic Dehn filling holds, for n > 3 the volume spectrum is discrete, and there is at most a finite number of hyperbolic n-manifolds with bounded volume (Wang's finiteness). Computing the number of hyperbolic 4-manifolds of given small (even minimal) volume appears nowadays far from reach. Counting such manifolds up to commensurability seems less unrealistic, at least by restricting the count to arithmetic manifolds. We will give an overview of the known examples of low-volume hyperbolic 4-manifolds, with particular attention to the construction of some cusped manifolds by means of a remarkable family of polytopes discovered in 2010 by Kerckhoff and Storm. This will include some results obtained in joint works with Martelli and Slavich.

Tuesday, 16 May 2023 -- 11 am, MNO 1.030

Christian El Emam (University of Luxembourg)

Title: The holomorphic extension of Weil-Petersson metric to the Quasi-Fuchsian space
Abstract: Quasi-Fuchsian representations extend the notion of Fuchsian representations in the character variety of PSL(2,C), and Bers theorem provides a milestone in understanding the space of these representations. In this talk, I will present a "metric" approach for quasi-Fuchsian space, which leads to a "metric" model of its holomorphic tangent bundle extending the usual metric model for the tangent bundle for the Teichmüller space (seen as the space of hyperbolic metrics up to isotopy). This formalism comes with some interesting applications. For instance, this allows giving an alternative proof of the existence of a unique holomorphic Riemannian metric on quasi-Fuchsian space extending the Weil-Petersson metric: moreover, this approach gives a new description of this metric, showing some connections with the renormalized volume and McMullen's reciprocity theorem. Time permitting, I will show how this approach can help understand what quadratic differentials arise as Schwarzian derivatives of Bers' projective structures.

Tuesday, 25 April 2023 -- 11 am, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Richard Wentworth (University of Maryland)

Title: Compactifications of Hitchin's moduli space
Abstract: The moduli space of rank 2 Higgs bundles has two compactifications, one from the algebraic geometry of the C-star action, and another from the analytic "limiting configurations" of solutions to the Hitchin equations. In this talk, I will discuss how the nonabelian Hodge correspondence extends as a map between these compactifications. Somewhat surprisingly, the extension is not continuous.

Wednesday, 19 April 2023 -- 2:30 pm, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Andrea Seppi (CNRS - Université Grenoble Alpes)

Title: Maximal submanifolds in pseudo-hyperbolic space and applications
Abstract: The Asymptotic Plateau Problem is the problem of existence of submanifolds of vanishing mean curvature with prescribed boundary “at infinity”. It has been studied in the hyperbolic space, in the Anti-de Sitter space, and in several other contexts. In this talk, I will present the solution of the APP for complete spacelike maximal p-dimensional submanifolds in the pseudo-hyperbolic space of signature (p,q). In the second part of the talk, I will discuss applications of this result in Teichmüller theory and for the study of Anosov representations. This is joint work with Graham Smith and Jérémy Toulisse.

Tuesday, 11 April 2023 -- 10 am, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Jacques Audibert (Sorbonne University)

Title: Zariski-dense surface subgroups in lattices
Abstract: Lattices are a well studied family of discrete subgroups of Lie groups. Recently, there have been a good deal of interest in constructing subgroups of lattices. When such subgroups are Zariski-dense and infinite index, they are called "thin". Although thin subgroups are not themselves lattices, they share many properties with them and have been an active field of research in the last decade. In this talk we will construct Zariski-dense surface groups in some lattices of split real Lie groups. The construction relies on special representations of surface groups in split real Lie groups, so called Hitchin representations. These are discrete and faithful representations of a surface group that form a whole connected component of the character variety. Our goal is to prove the existence of Zariski-dense Hitchin representations that have image in a lattice. To do so, we investigate arithmetic properties of lattices.

Tuesday, 28 March 2023 -- 11 am, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Anna Roig Sanchis (Sorbonne University)

Title: Random hyperbolic 3-manifolds
Abstract: We are interested in studying the behavior of geometric invariants of hyperbolic 3-manifolds, such as the length of their geodesics. A way to do so is by using probabilistic methods. That is, we consider a set of hyperbolic manifolds, put a probability measure on it, and ask what is the probability that a random manifold has a certain property. There are several models of construction of random manifolds. In this talk, I will explain one of the principal probabilistic models for 3 dimensions and I will present a result concerning the length spectrum - the multiset of lengths of all closed geodesics - of a 3-manifold constructed under this model.

Tuesday, 21 March 2023 -- 11 am, chalk room MNO 1st floor

Peter Smillie (Heidelberg University)

Title: Index of equivariant minimal surfaces in R^3 and symmetric spaces
Abstract: In joint work with Nathaniel Sagman, we gave a lower bound for the index of any minimal surfaces in rank n symmetric spaces in terms of the equivariant index of a related minimal surface in R^n. In this talk, I will explain what I mean by equivariant index, and prove lower bounds for equivariant index for certain minimal surfaces in R^3. As a consequence, we'll conclude that the Labourie conjecture cannot hold for any Hitchin component with genus at least 2 and rank at least 3.

Tuesday, 7 March 2023 -- 11 am, MNO 1.030

Francesco Bonsante (University of Pavia)

Title: Circle packing on projective surfaces
Abstract: Circle packings over the plane or the hyperbolic plane are widely investigated, and have been shown to be rich and interesting objects. Observing that the notion of disk in $\mathbb{C}P^1$ is invariant under projective transformations, Kojima, Mizushima and Tan proposed the study of circle packings on surfaces $S$ equipped with complex projective structures. The main observation is that the combinatoric of a circle packing is determined by a triangulation of the surface $S$, said the nerve of the triangulation. They proposed to fix a triangulation $T$ on a surface $S$ of genus $g>1$ and study the moduli space of pairs $(P,C)$, where $P$ is a projective structure on $S$ and $C$ is a circle packing with nerve equal to $T$. Indeed they showed that this moduli space can be identified to a real semialgebraic set of dimension equal to $6g-6$, where $g$ is the genus of $S$, and asked whether it is not singular and the forgetful map sending $(P,C)$ to $P$ is an embedding in the space of projective structures. Even more, they asked whether the map sending $(P,C)$ to the underlying Riemann surface $X(P)$ realises a homeomorphism. In the talk I will show that the moduli space is indeed a smooth manifold of dimension $6g-6$ and that the forgetful map $(P,C) \to P$ is an immersion. If time remains I will also illustrate some partial results on the injectivity of the map sending $(P,C)$ to $X(P)$. Results presented in the talk are part of a collaboration with Mike Wolf.

Tuesday, 28 February 2023 -- 11 am, room MNO 1.030

Katie Vokes (University of Luxembourg)

Title: Thickness and relative hyperbolicity for graphs of multicurves
Abstract: Various graphs associated to surfaces have proved to be important tools for studying the large scale geometry of mapping class groups of surfaces, among other applications. A seminal paper of Masur and Minsky proved that perhaps the most well known example, the curve graph, has the property of Gromov hyperbolicity, a powerful notion of negative curvature. However, this is not the case for every naturally defined graph associated to a surface. We will present joint work with Jacob Russell classifying a wide family of graphs associated to surfaces according to whether the graph is Gromov hyperbolic, relatively hyperbolic or not relatively hyperbolic.

Tuesday, 21 February 2023 -- 11 am, room MNO 1.030

Davide Spriano (Oxford University)

Title: Hyperbolic models for CAT(0) spaces
Abstract: A very successful approach in geometric group theory is to construct "hyperbolic models" for interesting groups, namely a hyperbolic space on which a (non-hyperbolic) group acts in a nice enough way. The earliest example of this philosophy is the Bass-Serre, and other more recent examples include the curve graph for mapping class groups, contact graph for cubical groups, free factor/free splitting/cyclic splitting complex for $\mathrm{Out}(F_n)$ and so on.

Friday, 10 February 2023 -- 3 pm, room MNO 1.050

Adele Jackson (Oxford University)

Title: Triangulations of Seifert fibered spaces
Abstract: If a 3-manifold has a non-trivial JSJ decomposition, the resulting pieces are either hyperbolic or Seifert fibered. When $M$ is a Seifert fibered manifold with boundary, I will describe a triangulation of $M$ that has at most a multiplicative constant more tetrahedra than the minimal triangulation of $M$. This result relies on the technical proposition that for any triangulation of a Seifert fibered space with boundary, all singular fibres (aside from those of multiplicity two) of the manifold are simplicial in its 79th barycentric subdivision.

Friday, 3 February 2023 -- 3 pm, room MNO 1.020
(Preceded by an informal talk at 11 am, room MNO 1.050)
Parker Evans (Rice University)

Title: Polynomial almost-complex curves in $S^{2,4}$
Abstract: In this talk, no $G_2$ background is assumed and all relevant terminology will be defined. We discuss the non-abelian Hodge theory on the punctured sphere for the split real Lie group $G_2'$. We study almost-complex curves $v_q: C \to S^{2,4}$ in the pseudosphere $S^{2,4}$ associated to polynomial sextic differential $q$. Focusing on the asymptotic geometry, we detect stable regions and critical lines where the limits of $v$ along rays change. Moreover, we find such polynomial almost-complex curves have polygonal boundaries in $\mathrm{Ein}^{2,3}$ satisfying a condition we call the annihilator property. Time permitting, we discuss a conjectural homeomorphism from a moduli space of sextic differentials to a moduli space of annihilator polygons.

Monday, 16 January 2023 -- 3 pm, chalk room

Sourav Ghosh (Ashoka University)

Title: Margulis space-times
Abstract: In this talk I will discuss the construction of Margulis space-times. Moreover, I will sketch a few interesting properties of these geometric objects.

Monday, 9 January 2023 -- 11 am, chalk room

Hao Chen (ShanghaiTech University)

Title: Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces, an interdisciplinary topic
Abstract: I will summarize how my recent works on minimal surfaces have been motivated or inspired by natural sciences, including material sciences, bio-membranes, fluid dynamics, etc.

Monday, 12 December 2022 -- 3 pm, room MNO 1.050

Suzanne Schlich (University of Strasbourg)

Title: Bowditch and primitive stable actions on hyperbolic space
Abstract: In this talk, we will introduce Bowditch representations of the free group of rank two (defined by Bowditch in 1998) along with primitive stable representations (defined by Minsky in 2010). Recently, Series on one hand, and Lee and Xu on an other hand, proved that Bowditch and primitive stable representations with value in $\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{C})$ are equivalent. This result can be generalised to representations with value in the isometry group of an arbitrary Gromov hyperbolic space.

Monday, 5 December 2022 -- 3 pm, room MNO 1.030

Valentina Disarlo (University of Heidelberg)

Title: Stretch lines for surfaces with boundary
Abstract: In 1986 William Thurston introduced a new distance for the Teichmuller space of closed surface. In collaboration with Daniele Alessandrini (Columbia) we extend this theory to the space of Teichmuller surfaces with geodesic boundary. We will construct a large family of geodesics for the Teichmüller space of surfaces with boundary with respect to its "arc metric": we will call them "generalized stretch lines". We will prove that the Teichmüller space with the arc metric is a geodesic metric space, and that it is a Finsler space. This generalizes a result by Thurston on punctured surfaces. This is joint work with Daniele Alessandrini (University of Heidelberg).

Monday, 28 November 2022 -- 3 pm, room MNO 1.010

Gianluca Faraco (University of Milano Bicocca)

Title: Period realisation of meromorphic differentials
Abstract: Let $S$ be an oriented surface of genus $g$ and $n$ punctures. The periods of any meromorphic differential on $S$, with respect to a choice of complex structure, determine a representation $\chi:\Gamma_{g,n} \to\mathbb C$, where $\Gamma_{g,n}$ denotes the first homology group of $S$. Chenakkod-F.-Gupta characterised the representations that thus arise, that is, lie in the image of the period map $\textsf{Per}:\Omega\mathcal{M}_{g,n}\to \textsf{Hom}(\Gamma_{g,n},\Bbb C)$. This generalises a classical result of Haupt in the holomorphic case. Moreover, we determine the image of this period map when restricted to any stratum of meromorphic differentials, having prescribed orders of zeros and poles. Strata generally fail to be connected and in fact they may exhibits connected components parametrised by some additional invariants. In collaboration with D. Chen we extend the earlier result by Chenakkod-F.-Gupta to connected components of strata.

Thursday, 24 November 2022 -- 3:45 pm, MNO 1.040

joint with the "Algebra, geometry and graph complexes" seminar

Anton Alekseev (University of Geneva)

Title: Hamiltonian actions and miracles of hyperbolic geometry
Abstract: We consider Hamiltonian action of the (central extension of) the group of diffeomorphisms of the circle. One class of interesting examples is given by second order differential operators on the circle. We recall the classification by Lazutkin-Pankratova, Kirillov, Segal, Witten (and others), and we give a new point of view on this result. Another class of interesting examples are moduli spaces of conformally compact hyperbolic metrics on two dimensional surfaces. In this case, the moment map is given by a surprising formula which involves the metric near the boundary and the geodesic curvature of certain curves on the surface. The talk is based on a joint work in progress with Eckhard Meinrenken.

Tuesday, 22 November 2022 -- 10:45 am, room MNO 1.020

Ludovico Battista (University of Bologna)

Title: Hyperbolic 4-manifolds, Perfect Circle-Valued Morse Functions, and Infinitesimal Rigidity
Abstract: An intriguing 3-dimensional phenomenon is the existence of hyperbolic manifolds that fiber over the circle. Such manifolds cannot exist in dimension 4, due to a constraint given by the Euler Characteristic and the Gauss-Bonnet formula. We will introduce the notion of "perfect circle-valued Morse function", which appears to be the natural generalization of "fibration over $S^1$", and we will state some consequences of the existence of hyperbolic 4-manifolds that admit such a function. Then, we will introduce the notion of infinitesimal rigidity for the holonomy of a hyperbolic manifold, and we will provide two examples of infinitesimally rigid and geometrically infinite hyperbolic 4- and 5-manifolds. The example in dimension 4 (resp. 5) is obtained using the perfect circle-valued Morse function (resp. a fibration over $S^1$ built by Italiano, Martelli, and Migliorini). Time permitting, we will introduce the tools used to build a hyperbolic 4-manifold that admits a perfect circle-valued Morse function and how we proved the infinitesimal rigidity for the geometrically infinite manifolds we talked about. These results were obtained during my PhD in collaboration with prof. Bruno Martelli.

Thursday, 17 November 2022 -- 1:45 pm, room MNO 1.020

Alex Nolte (Rice University / Georgia Tech)

Title: Plateau problems and fundamental groups of hyperbolic manifolds
Abstract: Earlier this year, Antoine Song introduced and studied a variant of the Plateau problem that produces distinguished metric spaces out of purely group-theoretic data. These spaces have remarkable properties, which suggest that their study should lead to applications in geometric group theory. I'll discuss one such application: an equivalent reformulation of Cannon's conjecture from geometric group theory. Viewing Cannon's conjecture through Song's framework qualitatively changes the way in which it is difficult, and seems to open up the possibility of counterexamples. I will end the talk by proposing at least 6 related open problems, which I expect to be more feasibly tractable than Cannon's conjecture. This is joint work with Tam Cheetham-West.

Monday, 24 October 2022 -- 3 pm, room MNO 1.050

Roman Prosanov (University of Vienna)

Title: On hyperbolic 3-manifolds with polyhedral boundary
Abstract: It is known that convex bodies in the model 3-spaces of constant curvature are rigid with respect to the induced intrinsic metric on the boundary. This story has two classical chapters: the rigidity of convex polyhedra and the rigidity of smooth convex bodies, though there is also a common generalization obtained by Pogorelov. Similarly to this, Jean-Marc Schlenker proved that hyperbolic metrics with smooth strictly convex boundary on a compact hyperbolizable 3-manifold M are rigid with respect to the induced metric on the boundary (and also with respect to the dual metric). It is reasonable to expect that similar results should hold also for polyhedral boundaries, and eventually for general convex boundaries. Curiously enough, no polyhedral counterparts were proven up to now. One of the reasons is that convex hyperbolic cone-metrics on the boundary of M (which is a standard intrinsic description of what we expect to be the induced metric on a polyhedral boundary) might admit not so polyhedral realizations, which are hard to handle or to exclude. A prototypical example is the boundary of a convex core bent along an irrational lamination. I will present a recent work proving the rigidity (and the dual rigidity) of hyperbolic metrics on M with convex polyhedral boundary under mild additional assumptions. As another outcome, it follows that convex cocompact hyperbolic metrics on the interior on M with the convex cores that are "almost polyhedral" are globally rigid with respect to the induced metric on the boundary of the convex core, and are infinitesimally rigid with respect to the bending lamination.

Monday, 17 October 2022 -- 3 pm, room MNO 1.050

Samuel Bronstein (ENS Paris)

Title: Almost-fuchsian disks in hyperbolic 3-space
Abstract: Almost-fuchsian disks are immersed disks whose normal bundles is diffeomorphic to the hyperbolic 3-space via the exponential map. In this talk we describe a possible parametrization of almost-fuchsian disks via quadratic differentials on the disk. Applying these results to equivariant immersions under a surface group, one gets back Uhlenbeck's notion of almost-fuchsian representation, and we build a Finsler metric on the space of hyperbolic metric on a surface.

Monday, 10 October 2022 -- 3 pm, Meeting room 6B

Nathaniel Sagman (University of Luxembourg)

Title: Hitchin representations and minimal surfaces in symmetric spaces
Abstract: Labourie proved that every Hitchin representation into $\mathrm{PSL}(n,\mathbb{R})$ gives rise to an equivariant minimal surface in the corresponding symmetric space. He conjectured that uniqueness holds as well (this was known for $n=2,3$), and explained that if true, then the Hitchin component admits a mapping class group equivariant parametrization as a holomorphic vector bundle over Teichmüller space.
In this talk, we will define Hitchin representations, Higgs bundles, and minimal surfaces, and give the background for the Labourie conjecture. We will then explain that the conjecture fails for $n$ at least $4$, and point to some future questions and conjectures.

Monday, 3 October 2022 -- 3 pm, room MNO 1.050

Yassin Chandran (City University of New York)

Title: Space of marked hyperbolic structures on infinite type surfaces.
Abstract: Bers' gave a proof of the celebrated Nielsen-Thurston classification that organizes elements of the mapping class group of finite type surfaces in terms of their action on Teichmüller space. Inspired by this perspective, we define a space of marked hyperbolic structures associated to an infinite type surface. We'll discuss various connectivity properties of this space and organize elements of the mapping class group into three classes based on their action on this space. This is work in progress joint with Ara Basmajian.

Monday, 26 September 2022 -- 3 pm, room MNO 1.050

Mélanie Theillière (University of Luxembourg)

Title: Convex Integration and isometric embeddings
Abstract: Convex Integration is a theory developped by Gromov in the 1970's. This theory allows to make the link between the sphere eversion of Smale and the Nash-Kuiper $C^1$-isometric embeddings. In this talk, we will present the Convex Integration Theory. As illustrations, we will use it to remove the singular point of a cone. Then we will use it to build explicitly a $C^1$ isometric embedding of the hyperbolic plane $\mathbb{H}^2$ in $\mathbb{E}^3$. This last construction is a joint work with the Hevea team.

Tuesday, 20 September 2022 -- 11:15 am, Meeting room 6A

Mahn-Tien Nguyen (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

Title: Monotonicity theorems and how to compare them
Abstract: The classical monotonicity theorem dictates how minimal submanifolds of $\mathbb{R}^n$ distribute their volume among spheres of different radii. I will show that in the hyperbolic space, each Minkowskian coordinate yields a monotonicity theorem. Such theorems concern the volume distribution of the submanifold among level sets of the coordinate function and can be used to prove non-existence or uniqueness results for minimal surfaces. If time permits, I will explain a version of the isoperimetric inequality for complete minimal surfaces of the hyperbolic space. The classical isoperimetric inequality is a relation between area and perimeter of a minimal surface in $\mathbb{R}^n$. In $\mathbb{H^n}$, the area of such surface is necessarily infinite and so this will be a statement about its renormalisation, as defined by Graham and Witten with strong motivation from String Theory.

Geometry and Topology seminar

Academic year 2026-2027