Special Colloquium
Fedor Manin
Ohio State University
Growth, distortion, and isoperimetry in topology
Abstract: The contractibility of a loop in our universe becomes almost irrelevant if it takes longer than the age of the universe to contract it; in other words, the simple connectivity of our experience is ultimately a geometric, not a topological fact. In the 1990's, this and other considerations led Gromov to propose a program of
quantitative topology: asking about the "size" or "complexity" of the
objects (a homotopy between two maps; a filling of a nullcobordant
manifold) whose existence is implied by the results of algebraic and
geometric topology. I will discuss the questions and the motivations
behind them, as well as some answers, most of them recent.
There will be tea in SEO 300 starting at 4:00.
Wednesday November 28, 2018 at 3:00 PM in 636 SEO