Abstract:
We learn as children that when we draw a triangle on a piece of paper, the sum of the angles equals 180 degrees. We will explore a world where this is not the case and triangles have the total sum of their angles always strictly smaller than 180 degrees: this is negative curvature, also called hyperbolicity. We will observe hyperbolicity in several places, like underwater, on our clothes, and in our brains.
About the Speaker:
Indira Chatterji is currently a professor in Nice (France), specialised in geometric group theory. After a PhD in ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in non-commutative geometry, she held a postdoctoral position at Cornell University (USA), as well as professor position at The Ohio-State University (USA), and at Université d’Orléans (France). She was an NBHM professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2013.