Modul:   MAT770  Oberseminar: Algebraische Geometrie

Symmetric differentials and fundamental group

Talk by Prof. Dr. Bruno Klingler

Speaker invited by: Prof. Dr. Joseph Ayoub

Date: 17.10.11  Time: 13.15 - 14.45  Room: Y27H25

Classical Hodge theory says that the sheaves of exterior differentials control the usual Betti cohomology of a smooth complex projective variety X. Is there a similar relation between the sheaves of symmetric differentials and the topology of X ? In this talk I will explain how symmetric differentials control finite dimensional representations of the topological fundamental group of X. Using automorphic forms this leads to new striking rigidity properties for fundamental groups of certain ball quotients.