ICTP Mathematics Colloquium (Webinar) by Nigel Hitchin on Webinar - Friday 28 August 2020, at 10:00

[ICTP/math - Mabilo Koutou]

ICTP Mathematics Colloquium by Nigel Hitchin on "Generalizations of
Teichmüller space"

on the occasion of the presentation of the Spirit of Salam Award to M.S.
Narasimhan

Starts 28 Aug 2020 10:00 (PLEASE NOTE UNUSUAL TIME)
Ends 28 Aug 2020 12:00
Central European Time

http://indico.ictp.it/event/9435/
http://indico.ictp.it/event/9435/material/poster/0.pdf

Programme:

10.00 Welcome and remarks by the ICTP Director
10.05 Reminiscences by colleagues, students and friends
11.00 Mathematics Colloquium by Nigel Hitchin (Oxford)

Registration at WEBINAR Link:
Please register in advance for this webinar:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FS20kYEVTrKrq9bKiVNqAQ
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing
information about joining the webinar. Should you not be able to join the
Webinar, the Colloquium is also available in live streaming at:
ictp.it/livestream

Abstract: The famous theorem of Narasimhan and Seshadri showed that the
moduli space of representations of the fundamental group of a surface into
a unitary group could be described holomorphically in terms of stable
vector bundles on an algebraic curve. The theory of Higgs bundles extended
this idea to noncompact groups and in particular to real forms like
SL(n,R) and in this case there is a component which is described as a
space of holomorphic differentials on the curve. The special case n=2
gives classical Teichmüller space. The talk concerns approaches to the
case of SL(n,R) where n=∞, interpreted as the group of Hamiltonian
diffeomorphisms of the cotangent bundle of the circle and leads to
differential geometric questions about geodesics on surfaces.

The actual presentation of the Award will take place during the Diploma
graduation ceremony, on Thursday, 27 August at 14:30; please see
(http://indico.ictp.it/event/9298/)