Abstract:
In this talk, I will start from the construction of invariants that candistinguish topological spaces. I then discuss the counterpart of these invariants in differential geometry. In particular, the analytic torsion is defined using determinants of Laplacians regularized by zeta-functions. In physics, a space is often required to carry a flux form. The corresponding notion of torsion is then generalized to twisted analytic torsion. I will introduce its definition, properties and relations to other topics. This is based on a joint work with V. Mathai.
2010-05-24 16:00 ~ 2010-05-24 17:00
Prof. Siye Wu (University of Hong Kong and University of Colorado)