Geometry and Topology
The modern discipline of geometry is affecting virtually every branch of mathematics, and is in a period of great progress. Many old problems are being solved using techniques from the area (notably Perelman's resolution of the Poincaré conjecture) and new directions are being pioneered. An important theme in this area has been the development and use of sophisticated techniques from the theory of PDEs to study natural equations that arise in geometry. The Atiyah-Singer index theorem from the 1960s connects the theory of linear PDEs to topology and geometry. The development of tools for nonlinear PDEs in geometry has been slower but has led to many of the most dramatic developments in mathematics including Donaldson's breakthroughs in the theory of four-manifolds using the Yang-Mills equations of high-energy physics.
The study of lower dimensional manifolds (dimensions four or less) has particular significance to theoretical physics and has many applications. Floer homology is a mathematically rigorous way of constructing parts of a quantum field theory. Another important and growing area is the mathematics of general relativity. The Lorentz version of the Einstein equations is now at the cutting edge of our hyperbolic PDE technology. One branch of geometric analysis involves the recovery of a function from its integrals over various domains. A well-known application of this idea is Computed Tomography Scanning (CT scans).
The research interest of this group covers geometric analysis as well as symplectic topology and its role in mirror symmetry, low dimensional topology and gauge theory, Riemannian geometry and minimal surfaces and mathematical physics.
Department Members in This Field
Faculty
- Daniel Alvarez-Gavela Symplectic geometry, h-principles, algebraic K-theory
- Tobias Holck Colding Differential Geometry, Partial Differential Equations
- Tristan Collins Geometric Analysis, PDEs
- Victor Guillemin Differential Geometry
- Larry Guth Metric geometry, harmonic analysis, extremal combinatorics
- Fedor Manin topological invariants in metric geometry, computational and stochastic topology
- William Minicozzi Geometric Analysis, PDEs
- Tomasz Mrowka Gauge Theory, Differential Geometry
- Lisa Piccirillo
- Paul Seidel Mirror Symmetry
Instructors & Postdocs
- Anthony Conway Low dimensional topology
- Qin Deng Geometric Analysis, Metric Geometry, Riemannian Geometry
- Giada Franz Geometric Analysis, with a focus on Free Boundary Minimal Surface
- Charlotte Kirchhoff-Lukat Generalized complex geometry, Poisson geometry, symplectic geometry
- Hokuto Konno Gauge Theory, Topology
- Yang Li Differential Geometry
- Beibei Liu low dimensional topology, Heegaard Floer homology, hyperbolic geometry
- Gage Martin low-dimensional topology, knots, Khovanov homology, knot Floer homology
- Keaton Naff Differential Geometry and Partial Differential Equations
- Tristan Ozuch-Meersseman Geometric analysis
- Alex Pieloch Symplectic geometry, Floer theory, and pseudoholomorphic curves
- Yair Shenfeld Probability, Convex Geometry
- Abigail Ward Symplectic Geometry, Homological Mirror Symmetry
- Jingze Zhu Differential Geometry and Partial Differential Equations
- Jonathan Zung Low dimensional topology
Graduate Students*
- Julius Baldauf Geometric analysis
- Deeparaj Bhat Gauge theory, Low-dimensional topology
- Zihong Chen
- Jose Guzman Algebraic Geometry, Enumerative Geometry
- Yiqi Huang
- Luis Kumanduri Metric Geometry, Quantitative Topology
- Tang-Kai Lee Differential Geometry and Partial Differential Equations
- Jae Hee Lee Symplectic geometry, mirror symmetry
- Alexander McWeeney Geometric Analysis, Analysis & PDEs, Mathematical Physics
- Joshua Messing Partial Differential Equations, Differential Geometry, Functional Analysis
- Elia Portnoy
- Xinrui Zhao RCD Spaces, Geometric Flows
*Only a partial list of graduate students