The geometry and dynamics of twisted quadratic differentials

Seminar: 
Geometry & Topology
Event time: 
Tuesday, February 26, 2019 - 4:15pm
Location: 
DL 431
Speaker: 
Jane Wang
Speaker affiliation: 
MIT
Event description: 

Twisted quadratic differentials, also known as dilation surfaces, are geometric structures that are in a way a generalization of translation surfaces. One way to define a dilation surface is as a collection of polygons with sides identified by translations and dilations by nonzero real factors, whereas translation surfaces only allow side identifications by translations. This small generalization is enough to introduce interesting new dynamical behaviors on dilation surfaces that do not occur for translation surfaces. In this talk, we will introduce dilation surfaces through the lens of pseudo-Anosov maps and fibered 3-manifolds, present a construction for some dilation surfaces with large affine automorphism groups, and end by discussing directions for future research about the Teichmuller dynamics of dilation surfaces.

Research Area(s):