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.

Senate Faculty

Name Title Research Interests
Mina Aganagic Professor String theory, mathematical physics
Ian Agol Professor Low-dimensional topology
Richard H. Bamler Associate Professor Geometric analysis, differential geometry, topology
Robert Bryant Professor Emeritus Nonlinear partial differential equations and differential geometry, exterior differential systems, algebraic geometry, and Finsler geometry
Alexander Givental Professor Symplectic and contact geometry, Singularity theory, Mathematical physics
Robin C. Hartshorne Professor Emeritus Algebraic geometry, History of geometry
Morris W. Hirsch Professor Emeritus Dynamical systems, Neural networks
Wu-Yi Hsiang Professor Emeritus Transformation groups, Differential geometry
Michael Hutchings Professor Low Dimensional and Symplectic Topology and Geometry
Robion Kirby Professor Emeritus Topology of manifolds
John Lott Professor Differential geometry, geometric analysis
David Nadler Professor Geometric representation theory, symplectic geometry
Charles C. Pugh Professor Emeritus Dynamical systems, normal hyperbolicity
Nicolai Reshetikhin Professor Emeritus Mathematical physics, Low-dimensional topology, Representation theory
Song Sun Professor Differential geometry, Complex geometry, Geometric analysis
Peter Teichner Professor Emeritus Geometric topology, 4-manifolds, elliptic cohomology
Constantin Teleman Professor Lie groups, Algebraic geometry, Topology, Quantum field theory
John B. Wagoner Professor Emeritus Differential topology, Algebraic K-theory, Dynamical systems
Katrin Wehrheim Associate Professor educating to counter oppression
Alan D. Weinstein Professor Emeritus, Professor of the Graduate School Symplectic geometry, Mathematical physics

Visiting Faculty

Name Title Research Interests
Norman Sheu Unit 18 Lecturer Differential geometry and mathematical physics
Rui Wang Unit 18 Lecturer Symplectic geometry and contact geometry, Mathematical physics

Postdocs

Name Title Research Interests
Catherine K. A. Cannizzo Postdoctoral Scholar Symplectic geometry, homological mirror symmetry, Fukaya categories of Landau-Ginzburg models.
Eric Chen NSF Postdoctoral Scholar Geometric analysis, differential geometry
Ivan Danilenko Morrey Visiting Assistant Professor Algebraic geometry, representation theory, mathematical physics.
Colleen Delaney Postdoctoral Scholar Mathematical physics, quantum topology, applied category theory, quantum computation
Peter Haine NSF Postdoctoral Scholar and UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow Homotopy theory, (derived) algebraic geometry, and related subjects
Rohil Prasad Miller Research Fellow Conservative dynamics; pseudoholomorphic curves; Floer theory
Kendric Schefers Morrey Visiting Assistant Professor Microlocal geometry, derived algebraic geometry, and related subjects
Jikang Wang Morrey Visiting Assistant Professor Differential geometry and metric geometry.
Peng Zhou Morrey Visiting Assistant Professor Mathematical physics, mirror symmetry, semiclassical analysis

Faculty with Related Research Interests

Name Title Research Interests
Tony Feng Assistant Professor Number Theory, Arithmetic Geometry, Langlands Program, Algebraic Topology, Representation Theory
Mark D. Haiman Professor Algebra, combinatorics, and algebraic geometry
Jenny Harrison Professor Functional analysis, Geometric measure theory, Calculus of variations, Mathematical physics
William M. Kahan Professor Emeritus Error analysis, Numerical computations, Computers, Convexity, Large matrices, Trajectory problems
Arthur E. Ogus Professor Emeritus Algebraic geometry
Marc A. Rieffel Professor Non-commutative harmonic analysis, Operator algebras, Quantum geometry
James A. Sethian Professor Applied mathematics, Computational physics, Partial differential equations
Vivek Shende Associate Professor Geometry
Hung-Hsi Wu Professor Emeritus Real and complex geometry, mathematics education

Recent Ph.D.s

Name Dissertation Title Dissertation Supervisor Year
Daniel Chupin Comonadicity for Localizations   David Nadler 2023
Irit Huq-Kuruvilla Twisted K-Theoretic Gromov-Witten Invariants and Euler Characteristics Alexander Givental 2023
Hongyi Liu Compactness theorems on hyperkähler 4-manifolds Song Sun 2023
Eduardo Oregon Reyes Some aspects of geometric actions of hyperbolic and relatively hyperbolic groups Ian Agol 2023
Chi Cheuk Tsang Veering triangulations and pseudo-Anosov flows Ian Agol 2023
Luya Wang New structures on embedded contact homology and applications to low-dimensional topology Michael Hutchings 2023
Nicolas Brody Groups Acting on Products of Trees   Ian Agol 2022
Christopher Kuo Symplectic geometric methods in microlocal sheaf theory   Vivek Shende 2022
Kyle Miller Singularity Theory for Extended Cobordism Categories and an Application to Graph Theory   Ian Agol 2022
Ritvik Ramkumar The Geometry of Hilbert Schemes on Projective Space David Eisenbud 2022
Xiaohan Yan Quantum K-Theory of Flag Varieties and Non-Abelian Localization Alexander Givental 2022
Julian Chaidez Convexity In Contact Geometry And Reeb Dynamics   Michael Hutchings 2021
Yi LAi Ricci flows with non-compact initial conditions   Richard Bamler 2021
Calvin McPhail-Snyder SL_2(C)-holonomy invariants of links   Nicolai Reshetikhin 2021
Eugene Rabinovich Factorization Algebras for Bulk-Boundary Systems   Peter Teichner 2021
Michael Smith Curvature Bounds in Riemannian Geometry   Richard Bamler 2021
German Stefanich Higher Quasicoherent Sheaves   David Nadler 2021
Christopher Eur The Geometry of Divisors on Matroids David Eisenbud 2020
Yingdi Qin Coisotropic Branes on Tori and Homological Mirror Symmetry 2020
Alexander Sherman Spherical and Symmetric Supervarieties 2020
Ben Wormleighton Numerics and stability for orbifolds with applications to symplectic embeddings David Eisenbud 2020
Yue Zhang Guts, Dehn Fillings and Volumes of Hyperbolic Manifolds Ian Agol 2020
Alexander Appleton Singularities in U (2)-invariant 4d Ricci flow Richard Bamler, Jon Wilkening 2019
Catherine Cannizzo Homological mirror symmetry for the genus 2 curve in an abelian variety and its generalized Strominger-Yau-Zaslow mirror Denis Auroux 2019
Alexander Carney The arithmetic Hodge-index theorem and rigidity of algebraic dynamical systems over function fields Xinyi Yuan 2019
Kevin Donoghue A Spin TQFT Related to the Ising Categories Ian Agol 2019
Benjamin Filippenko Polyfolds and Persistence Katrin Wehrheim 2019
Benjamin Gammage Microlocal sheaves and mirror symmetry David Nadler 2019
Andrew Hanlon Monodromy of Fukaya-Seidel categories mirror to toric varieties Denis Auroux 2019
Jeff Hicks Tropical Lagrangians and Homological Mirror Symmetry Denis Auroux 2019
Mihai Munteanu Nontrivial tori in spaces of symplectic embeddings Michael Hutchings 2019
Morgan Weiler Mean action of periodic orbits of area-preserving annulus diffeomorphisms Michael Hutchings 2019
Harrison Chen A Localization Theorem for Derived Loop Spaces and Periodic Cyclic Homology   David Nadler 2018
Chris Gerig Seiberg-Witten and Gromov invariants for self-dual harmonic 2-forms Michael Hutchings 2018
Daniel Lowengrub Applications of the Intersection Theory of Singular Varieties   Vivek Shende 2018
Wolfgang Schmaltz Gromov-Witten Axioms for Symplectic Manifolds via Polyfold Theory   Katrin Wehrheim 2018
Tao Su A Hodge-theoretic study of augmentation varieties associated to Legendrian knots/tangles   Vivek Shende, Richard E.Borcherds 2018
Thunwa 'Nics' Theerakarn Locally Volume Collapsed 4-Manifolds with Respect to a Lower Sectional Curvature Bound John Lott 2018
Ryan George Thorngren Combinatorial Topology and Applications to Quantum Field Theory   Vivek Shende 2018
Franco Vargas Pallete On Renormalized Volume   Ian Agol 2018
Patrick Wilson Asymptotically Conical Metrics and Expanding Ricci Solitons   John Lott 2018
Zhengyi Zhou Morse-Bott and Equivariant Theories Using Polyfolds   Katrin Wehrheim 2018