Mathematics Colloquium
Thang Nguyen
University of Michigan
Title: How hard is it to perturb a nice action?
Date: Friday, March 4, 2022
Place and Time: Zoom, 3:05pm
Abstract.
Given a group acting nicely on a compact manifold, are we able to slightly perturb the action to obtain a new one? In joint works with C. Connell, M. Islam, and R. Spatzier, we give some answers to this question. We consider groups that are lattices or fundamental groups of non-positively curved manifolds, and compact manifolds that are geometric boundaries or Furstenberg boundaries. The results are related to ones obtained by Kanai, Katok - Spatzier, Bowden - Mann, and Mann - Manning. I will define the objects needed for the talk, so no advanced previous knowledge is needed for the talk.