Symplectic and Poisson Geometry in interaction with Algebra, Analysis and Topology

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award will provide funding to organize a conference,``Symplectic and Poisson geometry in interaction with Algebra, Analysis and Topology'', celebrating four decades since the emergence of symplectic and Poisson geometry and their influence on major areas of mathematics. The conference focuses on recent important developments in symplectic and Poisson geometry, and the interactions of these fields with Analysis, Algebra, differential equations and low-dimensional topology. Specific topics covered by the talks will include: Taubes' recent proof of the Weinstein conjecture using Seiberg-Witten theory, recent progress in Lagrangian intersection theory, classical and quantum Yang-Baxter equations, Poisson and quantum groupoids, dynamical Weyl groups, q-deformed Casimir connections and Kazdhan-Lusztig functors. The conference will provide a forum to outline the recently found connections by Nicolai Reshetikhin, San Vu-Ngoc and others between integrable systems in symplectic and algebraic geometry and representation theory. Reshetikhin and Vu-Ngoc talks will also discuss the recent progress in the quantization of integrable systems from a more algebraic and a more geometric view point, respectively. Other topics covered in the conference will regard recent breakthroughs in relating geodesic flow to eigenfunctions, and Hitrik and Sjostrand's recent work on spectra of non-self adjoint operators in dimension two (which relies heavily on Alan Weinstein's famous work on spectra of Zoll surfaces). The talks by Tudor Ratiu and Jerrold Marsden will focus on applications of symplectic geometry to a wide problems in physics and engineering such as as fluid and plasma theory, liquid crystals and micropolar fluids. The goal behind this conference is that of holding a high profile meeting to bring together world experts and junior researchers to discuss these current exciting interactions. The time of the conference (May 2010) coincides with the first year anniversary of Alan Weinstein?s retirement from UC Berkeley. Weinstein has been one of the most influential figures in symplectic geometry and analysis in the past forty years. His fundamental work has inspired many mathematicians and led to the development of central concepts in symplectic and Poisson geometry, as well as to the establishment of symplectic geometry as an independent discipline within mathematics. The conference will provide a forum to dicuss Weinstein's impact on geometry and mathematics at large. The last few decades have witnessed numerous spectacular interactions between symplectic geometry, analysis, low dimensional topology and partial differential equations leading to new understanding in fundamental problems of mathematics. Today symplectic geometry is an active, central branch of mathematics populated by deep results and connections with physics, low-dimensional topology, gauge theory, integrable systems, representation theory, group theory, semiclassical analysis and Lie groups. The main theme of the Conference is to illuminate the particular type of interactions which characterize the past forty years of developments in symplectic geometry. To this end the conference will have talks by leading experts, both junior and senior, describing the current state of the art of several of the most fundamental research problems in these areas. Symplectic and Poisson geometry are by now well established fields of research, and its language and techniques are being used in many areas of mathematics, theoretical physics, and engineering such as symmetric bifurcation problems, integrable systems, string theory, geometric phases, nonlinear control, nonholonomic mechanics and locomotion generation in robotics.