Brandeis-Harvard-MIT-Northeastern

JOINT MATHEMATICS COLLOQUIUM


 
On the curvature of 4-manifolds

 

Claude LeBrun

Stony Brook University
 

Harvard University

Thursday, May 20, 2004


 

Talk at 4:30 p.m. in Science Center D

Tea at 4:00 p.m. in the Math Lounge


 
 

Abstract:   A central problem in global differential geometry is to determine when a smooth compact n-manifold admits a metric which is "as flat as possible". In this lecture, I will describe some recent results on the existence and non-existence of such "optimal metrics" on simply connected 4-manifolds. Interestingly, the difference between existence and non-existence turns out to delicately depend on one's choice of differentiable structure; it is not determined by the homeomorphism type alone.


 

Home Web page:  Alexandru I. Suciu  Comments to:  alexsuciu@neu.edu 
Posted: May 11, 2004    URL: http://www.math.neu.edu/bhmn/lebrun04.html