NSF/CBMS Regional Conference in the Mathematical Sciences

Ergodic Theory, Groups, and Geometry

Lecture Notes

Notes are now available for the entire series of eleven lectures
that Robert J. Zimmer gave during the conference. The full
set of notes is 31 pages long.

• Click HERE for plain TeX file (106K)
• Click HERE for DVI file (150K)
• Click HERE for PostScript file (620K)

These are informal lecture notes. In particular,

• the subject matter is incomplete, and
• the statements of results may be imprecise.

These notes are for personal use only.
They are not intended to be accurate
to the level of providing a definitive
reference for citation.

Errors and omissions are solely the
responsibility of Dave Witte, the editor/typist.

Contact Dave Witte (dwitte@math.okstate.edu)
if you have trouble with the files, or need a hardcopy.

Topics of Zimmer's Lectures

Ergodic Theory, Groups, and Geometry

1. Introduction: examples, problems
2. Topological theory: circles, surfaces, fixed points
3. Geometric structures:algebraic hulls, Lorentz manifolds
4. Fundamental groups I: engaging conditions, first results
5. Gromov representation: rigid geometry and pi₁
6. Superrigidity and first applications
7. Fundamental groups II: arithmetic structure
8. Locally homogeneous manifolds
9. Stationary measures: projective quotients
10. Orbit structure
11. Technical appendix to Lecture 5: ideas of Gromov's proof

Summary description of conference topics

Full description of conference topics

Expected participants (updated June 18)

Lecture schedule (updated June 18)

Pre-conference workshop on Lie Groups and Dynamics (updated June 18)

Housing (updated February 4)

Local transportation from airport to campus (updated June 1)

Reimbursement (updated April 17)

Visa information (updated April 17)

Entertainment (updated April 17)

Application form (updated May 7)

For more information, contact one of the conference organizers:

Scot Adams
Department of Mathematics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55812
email: adams@math.umn.edu

Dave Witte
Department of Mathematics, Oklahoma State University, 401 Math Sciences, Stillwater, OK 74074
email: dwitte@math.okstate.edu

Maps of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus can be found at http://www1.umn.edu/tc/around/map s.html, but the best ones warn that they take a long time to load. Additional information about the University of Minnesota is available from http://www.umn.edu.

(Last updated: October 12, 1998)