Geometric Analysis and Topology Seminar

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The (Co)Isoperimetric Problem in Polyhedra

Speaker: Dominic Dotterrer, Toronto

Location: Warren Weaver Hall 312

Date: Thursday, March 8, 2012, 2 p.m.

Synopsis:

In discrete settings, many natural combinatorial optimization problems can be reformulated as an isoperimetric-type problem. In the last decade, a number of (surprising) applications have leveraged solutions to these problems. The talk will be in three parts. I will begin by explaining some of these geometro-topological applications. Then I will describe a technique for filling cycles in a hypercube. I will finish by describing an interesting family of cubical cellular cycles which turn out to be isoperimetric minimizers in the cube.