Geometric Structures Laboratory

Event Information Abelianization in action
11:10 on Thursday October 27, 2016
13:00 on Thursday October 27, 2016
FI210, Fields Institute, 222 College St.
Aaron Fenyes
https://www.ma.utexas.edu/users/afenyes/
University of Toronto

Abelianization is a process that parameterizes nonabelian local systems on a singular flat surface by turning them into abelian ones. On a compact surface, the restriction maps of an abelianized local system are defined by random-looking infinite products, which are straightforward to evaluate numerically, but hard to describe analytically except in a few special cases. I'll demonstrate one of those special cases, which is related to the physics of electrons moving in a periodic material.