Seminar: Morse Complexity of Homology Classes
Guest Lecturer: Professor Shmuel Weinberger, Department of Mathematics University of Chicago
How complex are the fundamental structures underlying manifolds?
The Institute for Advanced Studies is honored to host Professor Shmuel Weinberger as part of the Distinguished Lectures in Pure Mathematics.
As part of the Geometry and Dynamics Seminar, Professor Weinberger will deliver a lecture titled "Morse Complexity of Homology Classes", in which he will discuss a refined approach to understanding the topology of manifolds. Building on Gromov’s 1970s pseudonorm and ideas inspired by Thurston, he will explore the concept of minimizing the number of critical points in a Morse function for a manifold representing a homology class. While this aligns with Gromov’s approach in dimension two, higher dimensions reveal striking differences. The lecture will touch on connections to classical topology—including open book decompositions and surgery theory—representation theory, and elliptic operators, highlighting joint work with Manin and Tshishiku.
Wednesday, 12 November 2025, 14:00
Where: Room 309, Schreiber Building
Light refreshments will be served before the seminar.
The seminar will be conducted in English and is open to the public.
Click here to see the invitation
