Oporto Meeting on Geometry, Topology and Physics   Oporto Meeting on Geometry, Topology and PhysicsOporto Meeting on Geometry, Topology and PhysicsOporto Meeting on Geometry, Topology and Physics
FCUP - Isntituto Superior Técnico Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto Instituto Superior Técnico  
XVIIIth Oporto Meeting on
Geometry, Topology and Physics
    9th to 12th July 2009

Talks 3:


  • On global symmetries of Poisson-Nijenhuis manifolds (Luca Stefanini, Penn State University - Department of Mathematics).
Abstract: Poisson-Nijenhius manifolds were introduced by Magri and Morosi in 1988 and have been studied ever since due to their connection to certain bihamiltonian systems and integrable hierarchies. In this talk, we shall identify the natural global symmetries of Poisson (almost) Nijenhuis manifolds as Poisson almost Nijenhuis groupoids, and discuss reduction in this context. Our approach is essentially algebraic and can be generalized to Nijenhuis-type structures on Lie algebroids.
  • Hamiltonian Monodromy via Geometric Quantization and Theta Functions (Mauro Spera, Dipartimento di Informatica - Universita di Verona).
Abstract:  Hamiltonian monodromy is addressed from  the point of view of geometric quantization,  and various differential geometric aspects thereof are dealt with, all related to holonomies of   suitable flat connections. In the case of completely integrable Hamiltonian systems with two degrees of freedom, a link is established between  monodromy and (2-level) theta functions, by resorting to the by now classical differential geometric intepretation of the latter as covariantly constant sections of a flat connection, via the heat equation. Furthermore, it is shown that monodromy is tied to the braiding of the Weiestrass roots pertaining to  a Lagrangian torus, when endowed with a natural complex structure (making it an elliptic curve) manufactured from a natural basis of cycles thereon. Finally, a new derivation of the monodromy of the spherical pendulum is provided.
  • Dirac Lie groups (Madeleine Jotz, Chair of geometric analysis, EPF Lausanne, Switzerland).
Abstract: We study Dirac Lie groups, that is, Lie groups endowed with multiplicative Dirac structures. We give the definition of this generalization of Poisson Lie groups, together with first geometric properties of these objects. The notion of the Lie bialgebra of a Poisson Lie group is expanded to the situation of a Dirac Lie group. We define Dirac homogeneous spaces of Dirac Lie groups and give a structure Theorem for a special class of closed Dirac Lie groups. This is a progress report.
  • Lie 2-algebras from 2-plectic geometry (Christofer Rogers, University of California, Riverside).
Abstract: Just as symplectic geometry is a natural setting for the classical mechanics of point particles, 2-plectic geometry can be used to describe classical strings. Just as a symplectic manifold is equipped with a closed non-degenerate 2-form, a "2-plectic manifold" is equipped with a closed non-degenerate 3-form.
The Poisson bracket makes the smooth functions on a symplectic manifold form a Lie algebra. Similarly, any 2-plectic manifold gives a "Lie 2-algebra": the categorified analogue of a Lie algebra, where the usual laws hold only up to isomorphism. We explain these ideas and use them to give a new construction of the "string Lie 2-algebra" associated to a simple Lie group (pdf)