EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Yamabe Lecture 3: Minimal surfaces and the Willmore Conjecture
Speaker: Fernando Codá Marques
Speaker Info: IMPA
Brief Description:
Special Note:
Abstract:

In 1965, T. J. Willmore conjectured that the integral of the square of the mean curvature of any torus immersed in Euclidean three-space is at least 2\pi^2. In this series of three lectures we will describe a proof of this conjecture that uses the min-max theory of minimal surfaces. This is joint work with Andre Neves.

In the third and final lecture we will discuss the Almgren-Pitts min-max theory for the area functional. We will explain the main topological argument that rules out the possibility of producing great spheres by the min-max process, and we will finish the proof of the main theorems. If time permits, we will discuss some more recent developments in min-max theory.