Geometry working seminar

Wednesday, June 27, 2012 1:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Alejandra Vicente-Colmenares & Brad Dart, Pure Mathematics Department University of Waterloo

Alejandra Vicente-Colmenares

"Stable co-Higgs bundles"

Abstract:
In his thesis Steven Rayan proved the non-existence of co-Higgs bundles over K3 and general type surfaces, suggesting that some of the interesting examples over surfaces must be found at the lower end of the Kodaira classification. Motivated by this, and the fact that interesting co-Higgs bundles over curves occur only over P1, studying co-Higgs bundles over Hirzebruch surfaces {starting with P1 P1{ seemed like a natural next step. In this talk, the concept of stable co-Higgs bundles will be introduced, and some aspects of its classification over P1 P1 will be discussed.

Brad Dart

"Principal bundles"

Abstract:
Principal bundles are ubiquitous in topology and differential geometry, as well as theoretical physics; they provide the mathematical framework for gauge theories, for example, and are a generalization of both vector bundles and covering spaces. A principal bundle consists of a bre bundle with a free and transitive group action. Consequently, each bre is  isomorphic to the group and the base space is isomorphic to the space of orbits under this action. This definition and these basic facts make sense in both the topological and smooth categories. The frame bundle of a manifold is perhaps the most natural example of a principal bundle. The possibility of further structure on these bundles, like metrics or orientations, is evidenced by a reduction of the structure group. New bundles are generated via the associated bundle construction by using representations of the group. Principal bundles can also have a connection on them, which is a splitting of the tangent space into horizontal and vertical subspaces that is somehow compatible with the group action. This talk will attempt to elaborate and clarify as many of these remarks as time will allow.