Alexander Kupers from the University of Toronto Scarborough, will present a Brent P. Smith Lecture titled “Diffeomorphisms of discs” as part of the Mathematics Department Colloquium Lecture Series. His lecture will be supplemented by his minicourse "Rational homotopy of diffeomorphisms of discs”, February 17-21. The information on the minicourse is posted on the math events page.

Abstract: Discs are among the simplest manifolds, but their groups of diffeomorphisms can be very complicated. I will describe the techniques from geometry, topology, and dynamics that were used to understand these groups in low dimensions, the relationship of these groups to stable homotopy theory and number theory in high dimensions, and recent breakthroughs in understanding their rational homotopy type. This talk will be aimed at a broad audience.

The Math Department is a part of K-State’s College of Arts and Sciences.  To learn more about opportunities in Math at K-State, visit the math department website.