Federico Salmoiraghi (Queen’s University)

Math & Stats Department Colloquium

Friday, September 29th, 2023

Time: 2:30 p.m.  Place: Jeffery Hall, Room 234

Speaker: Federico Salmoiraghi (Queen’s University)

Title: Foliation, contact structures and Anosov flows in dimension 3.

Abstract: An example of the beautiful intertwine between hyperbolic dynamics, foliation theory, and contact geometry is given by an Anosov flow. Geometrically an Anosov flow is defined by two transverse invariant foliations with expanding and contracting behaviours. Much of our understanding of the structure of an Anosov flow relies on the study of the leaves space of the invariant foliations. Mitsumatsu first noticed that an Anosov vector field also belongs to the intersection of two transverse contact structures rotating towards each other. After giving the necessary background, I will show how to use this point of view to address questions in the theory of surgery on Anosov flows.

Bio: Federico Salmoiraghi joined Queen’s as a Coleman postdoctoral fellow in 2022, before that he was postdoc at the Technion from 2019 to 2022 after receiving his PhD from Liousiana State University in 2019. Prof. Salmoiraghi’s work is at the intersection of contact geometry and dynamical systems.