Gauge Theory and Symmetries of 4-Dimensional Spaces

Plan of the seminar: we separate each talk into two. In the first 60 minutes the speaker gives an introductory talk for non-mathematicians. After a short break, the second 60 minutes is spent for a bit more detailed talk for mathematicians (working in other areas). We welcome you joining both parts of the seminar or only the first/second half.

Although the term "gauge theory" is usually used in physical contexts, in the early 1980's, mathematicians found that gauge theory has many striking applications to purely mathematical problems. Most of typical applications are related to topology of 4-dimensional spaces. As a recent development in this direction, I used gauge theory to study "the shape of the space of all symmetris of a 4-dimensional space".

In the first one hour, I will explain a notion of mathematical spaces, called manifolds, and try to describe the idea: how mathematicians make use of gauge theory to study the topology of a 4-dimensional manifold.

In the second one hour, I will explain what the space of symmetries of a manifold means, and which type of theorems about the space of symmetries can be obtained using gauge theory.