Research in Geometry/Topology

Geometry and topology at Berkeley center around the study of manifolds, with the incorporation of methods from algebra and analysis.

The principal areas of research in geometry involve symplectic, Riemannian, and complex manifolds, with applications to and from combinatorics, classical and quantum physics, ordinary and partial differential equations, and representation theory.

Research in topology per se is currently concentrated to a large extent on the study of manifolds in low dimensions. Topics of interest include knot theory, 3- and 4-dimensional manifolds, and manifolds with other structures such as symplectic 4-manifolds, contact 3-manifolds, hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Research problems are often motivated by parts of theoretical physics, and are related to geometric group theory, topological quantum field theories, gauge theory and Seiberg-Witten theory, and higher dimensional topology.

A number of members of the Geometry/Topology group belong to the Research Training Group in Geometry and Topology, which runs activities and supports grad students and postdocs in its areas of interest.

Courses

Undergraduate upper division courses

The undergraduate courses, Math 140, 141, 142 are devoted to different topics in geometry and topology:

Math 140. Metric Differential Geometry
Math 141. Elementary Differential Topology
Math 142. Elementary Algebraic Topology

Graduate courses

There is a 3 semester sequence of graduate courses in geometry, Math 240, 241, 242, two of which are taught each year.

Math 240. Riemannian Geometry
Math 241. Complex Geometry
Math 242. Symplectic Geometry

There is a 2 semester sequence in algebraic topology, 215A,B, taught every year, and a one semester course Math 214 in the foundations of differential topology.

Math 214. Differentiable Manifolds
Math 215A. Algebraic Topology
Math 215B. Algebraic Topology

Two or more topics courses are given yearly:

Math 270. Hot Topics
Math 276. Topics in Topology
Math 277. Topics in Differential Geometry

Recent topics include:

Spring 2021, Math 276. Knot Theory (Agol)
Fall 2020, Math 277. Poisson Geometry (Reshetikhin)
Fall 2020, Math 277. Ricci Flow (Bamler)
Spring 2020, Math 277. Categorical Structures in Symplectic Geometry (Wehrheim)
Spring 2018, Math 277. Complex/Kaehler Geometry (Sun)
Fall 2017, Math 276. Knots and Links (Agol)
Spring 2017, Math 277. Ricci curvature (Bamler)
Spring 2016, Math 276. Factorization Algebras (Teichner)
Spring 2016, Math 277. Applied Holomorphic Curve Theory (Hutchings)
Fall 2015, Math 270. Gauge Theory (Wehrheim)
Spring 2015, Math 276. Gauge Field Theory (Teichner)
Spring 2015, Math 277. Ricci Flow (Lott)
Spring 2014, Math 276. Functorial Field Theories and Ring Spectra (Teichner)
Spring 2014, Math 276. Regularization of Moduli Spaces (Wehrheim)
Fall 2013, Math 278. Pseudoholomorphic Curves (Wehrheim)
Spring 2013, Math 277. The Quantum Riemann-Roch-Hirzebruch Theorem (Givental)
Fall 2012, Math 277. Contact Homology (Hutchings)
Spring 2012, Math 277. Kaehler Geometry (Lott)
Spring 2011, Math 270. The Blob Complex (Teichner)
Spring 2011, Math 276. The Index Theorem (Teichner)
Fall 2010, Math 276. Seiberg-Witten-Floer Theory (Hutchings)
Fall 2010, Math 277. Optimal Transport (Lott)
Spring 2010, Math 270. Perturbative Quantization (Teichner)
Spring 2010, Math 276. Three-Manifold Topology (Agol)
Fall 2009, Math 277. Mirror Symmetry (Auroux)
Fall 2009, Math 277. Exterior Differential Systems (Bryant)
Fall 2009, Math 277. Ricci Flow (Lott)
Spring 2009, Math 270. Topological Field Theory (Teichner)
Fall 2008, Math 276. Rational Homotopy Theory (Teleman)

Seminars

The Topology seminar is held weekly throughout the year, normally Wednesdays at 4pm. The speakers are normally visitors, but sometimes are resident faculty or graduate students. Three times a year the Bay Area Topology Seminar meets at Stanford (fall), Berkeley (winter) and Davis (spring), with two lectures in the afternoon and dinner afterward.

There are various seminars related to symplectic geometry. On the first Monday of 7 months per year, there is a meeting of the Northern California Symplectic Geometry Seminar (Berkeley-Davis-Santa Cruz-Stanford), with two talks and a dinner, the venue alternating between Berkeley and Stanford. In the first (October) meeting of each academic year, one of the talks is the Andreas Floer Memorial Lecture, given by a distinguished invited speaker.

The Differential Geometry seminar is held weekly throughout the year, normally Mondays at 3.