[Topology.beta] Tomorrow AG 11:00: Oscar Koster

[Rot, T.O. (Thomas)]

Dear all,

Tomorrow we have a guest in the AG from the far north (Groningen). With Marcello Seri I cosupervise Oscar Koster for his master thesis.

I know this is the holiday period, but I hope many of you will join so that we will have a reasonably sized audience.

Title: Exploring sub-Riemannian orbifolds

Abstract:  Orbifolds and sub-Riemannian geometry are interesting generalizations of the concept of manifold. Orbifolds generalize manifolds by incorporating singularities, while sub-Riemannian manifolds exclude specific geodesics and restrict movement to chosen subsets. But how to define a sub-Riemannian structure on an orbifold? I will talk about parking cars, falling cats, barber shops and teardrops in order to discuss these generalizations.

First I focus on the example of lens space, which are quotient spaces without singularities and where a unique "Cartan decomposition" can be defined. This decomposition yields intriguing properties for the sub-Riemannian dynamics. Defining sub-Riemannian orbifolds in general poses several challenges. In the talk I address these challenges and show cases where we can define a sub-Riemannian structure on an orbifold.

Best,
Thomas
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