Promotion Talk - Professor Zhizhang Xie

Date: September 13, 2017

Time: 4:00PM - 5:00PM

Location: BLOC 220

Speaker: Zhizhang Xie, Texas A&M University

Description:

Title: Higher invariants in geometry and topology

Abstract: Higher invariants of differential operators are fundamental in the studies of geometry and topology. They played fundamental roles in some of the major advances in geometry and topology, such as the Novikov conjecture, the Baum-Connes conjecture, and the Gromov-Lawson-Rosenberger conjecture. In recent years, there has been a great amount of progress in developing new higher invariants to obtain more refined geometric and topological applications. In this talk, I will survey two such significant applications: (1) positive scalar curvature problem in geometry; (2) manifold rigidity problem in topology.