Departmental Colloquium
Michael Wolf
Rice University
Minimal Desingularizations of Planes in Space
Abstract: We prove that there is only one way to 'desingularize' the intersection of two planes in space to and obtain a periodic minimal surface as a result. The proof is mostly an exercise in, and an introduction to, basic Teichmuller theory: we translate the geometry of minimal surface in space into a statement about a moduli space of flat structures on Riemann surfaces, and then study deformation theory and degenerations in this moduli space to prove the result. We remark on the general (non-periodic) case.
Friday March 5, 2010 at 3:00 PM in SEO 636