Colloquium: "Rigidity of lattice actions on manifolds"

Aaron Brown, University of Chicago

Abstract: For n>=3, consider SL(n, Z) or,  more generally, consider a lattice subgroups of higher-rank simple Lie groups.  It is well known that such groups exhibit a number of rigidity properties with respect to linear representations.  In this talk, I consider smooth actions of such group on manifolds (or “nonlinear representations”) and outline a number of recent rigidity results: in manifolds of sufficiently small dimension, all actions can be classified by showing they are standard actions or trivial actions.

Host: Steven Frankel

Tea will be served @ 3:45 in room 200