MATH 7110: Seminar in Analysis (Fall 2010)

Instructor: John Smillie

In this course we will look at moduli spaces of geometric structures on surfaces and some of their applications. Our objective is to be able to develop the necessary background to go through the paper Braid groups and Hodge theory by Curt McMullen. Other important sources are Shapes of Polyhedra and Triangulations of the Sphere by Bill Thurston and the papers of Deligne and Mostow on hypergeometric functions. Students will be expected to give lectures.