Series: Mathematics Colloquium

Date: Thursday, March 20, 2003

Time: 4:30 - 5:30 PM

Place: 102 McAllister Building

Host: Bryna Kra

Refreshments: 4:00 - 4:30 PM, in 212 McAllister

Speaker: Dusa McDuff, SUNY Stony Brook

Title: The Topological Properties of Groups of Symplectomorphisms

Abstract:

One feature of symplectic geometry is that there are many
symplectomorphisms, that is diffeomorphisms that preserve the
structure.  Thus the symplectomorphism group of a manifold is always
infinite dimensional.  The special structures that arise in symplectic
topology (Gromov-Witten invariants, quantum homology and so on) place
as yet rather poorly understood restrictions on the topological
properties of this group.  This talk will explain some of these and
describe some open questions.