Title of Seminar: Infosys Chandrasekharan Random Geometry Colloquium
Title of Talk: Min-max construction of minimal hypersurfaces
Speaker: Akashdeep Dey, Princeton University and University of Toronto
Date: October 3, 2022
Time: 16:30:00 Hours
Venue: AG-77
Abstract: In the 1960s, Almgren developed a min-max theory to construct closed minimal submanifolds in an arbitrary closed Riemannian manifold. The regularity theory in the co-dimension 1 case was further developed by Pitts and Schoen-Simon. In particular, by the combined works of Almgren, Pitts and Schoen-Simon, in every closed Riemannian manifold $M^n$, $n \geq 3$, there exists at least one closed, minimal hypersurface. Recently, the Almgren-Pitts min-max theory has been further developed to show that minimal hypersurfaces exist in abundance.
Title of Talk: Min-max construction of minimal hypersurfaces
Speaker: Akashdeep Dey, Princeton University and University of Toronto
Date: October 3, 2022
Time: 16:30:00 Hours
Venue: AG-77
Abstract: In the 1960s, Almgren developed a min-max theory to construct closed minimal submanifolds in an arbitrary closed Riemannian manifold. The regularity theory in the co-dimension 1 case was further developed by Pitts and Schoen-Simon. In particular, by the combined works of Almgren, Pitts and Schoen-Simon, in every closed Riemannian manifold $M^n$, $n \geq 3$, there exists at least one closed, minimal hypersurface. Recently, the Almgren-Pitts min-max theory has been further developed to show that minimal hypersurfaces exist in abundance.
In addition to the Almgren-Pitts min-max theory, there is an alternative PDE based approach for the min-max construction of minimal hypersurfaces. This approach was introduced by Guaraco and further developed by Gaspar and Guaraco. It is based on the study of the limiting behaviour of solutions to the Allen-Cahn equation. In my talk, I will briefly describe the Almgren-Pitts min-max theory and the Allen-Cahn min-max theory and discuss the question to what extent these two theories agree.