Non-Linear Geometry of Banach Spaces, Differentiability

and Geometric Group Theory

Gilles Godefroy

Mark Sapir

Fernando Albiac

David Fisher

Erik Guentner

Denka Kutzarova

Gilles Lancien

James Lee

Mikhail Ostrovskii

Lova Randrianarivony

Gideon Schechtman

Alain Valette

Michael Doré

Dennis Dreesen

Ana Khukhro

Rufus Willett

1-5 August 2011

Texas A&M University

College Station, TX

Organized by Florent Baudier (Chair), William B. Johnson, Piotr Nowak and Bunyamin Sari

as part of the Workshop in Analysis and Probability

dedicated to the memory of Nigel Kalton

The non-linear theory of Banach spaces is concerned with understanding the interplay between the metric and the linear structures of Banach spaces. To what extend does the metric structure determine the linear one? Which aspects of the linear geometry of Banach spaces are invariant under Lipschitz, uniformly continuous or coarse maps? What are the obstructions to embedding a metric space into a “nice” Banach space?

The quantitative aspects of the nonlinear theory of Banach spaces are of great significance in theoretical computer science. Embeddability of finite metric spaces and graphs into linear spaces has become an important tool in that area.

Additionally, recent progress in index theory on open manifolds  showed the connection between metric embeddability into Banach spaces and Baum-Connes-type conjectures. Understanding geometric obstructions to coarse embeddability into various classes of superreflexive spaces is a fundamental issue in geometric group theory in connection with the Novikov conjecture.

The workshop aims to bring together researchers in nonlinear Banach space geometry, differentiability theory and geometric group theory to facilitate further interaction between these fields, and it will feature introductory lectures.

Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu

Vanderbilt University

Universidad Pública de Navarra

Indiana University

University of Hawaii

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Université de Franche-Comté

University of Washington

St. John's University

Saint Louis University

Weizmann Institute of Science

Université de Neuchâtel

University of Birmingham

Catholic University Leuven

University of Southampton

Vanderbilt University

Lecture Series

Main Speakers

Additional Talks

All talks are held in Blocker Building room 165