Lee Kennard (UCSB): What rational homotopy theory tells us about the Wilhelm conjecture

Event Date: 

Friday, May 30, 2014 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm

Event Location: 

  • 6635 South Hall

Event Contact: 

Lee Kennard
Email: kennard@math.ucsb.edu

Abstract: A conjecture of Fred Wilhelm is the following: Given a Riemannian manifold M with positive sectional curvature, if M admits a Riemannian submersion to another manifold B, then the dimension of M is less than twice the dimension of B. We discuss some examples supporting this conjecture and some evidence for it. I will then discuss new evidence for the conjecture obtained using topological methods. This is joint work with Manuel Amann (KIT).