Math 581DA
Eric Babson

Eric Babson

Autumn 2004, Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 11:30

The course will follows McDuff and Salamon: Introduction to Symplectic Topology. The main topic will be the global study of symplectic manifolds. After some brief motivation from physics, we will start with definitions of the objects and maps to study: manifolds with symplectic, contact, complex and Kahler structures and (Hamiltonian) symplectomorphisms. We will then look at some of the basic constructions: moment maps, blow-ups, connected sums, and quotients. In particular, we will give a localization theorem that shows that in the compact case many invariants (e.g. equivariant DeRahm cohomology) are detectable from the fixed points of a Hamiltonian circle action.

Prerequisites: Math 544/5/6.