On 9th March, at the earlier time than normal of 10h-12h, but in the usual location, the Salle de Profs, Michael Khanevsky will give the fifth talk in our working group on manifolds with lower bounds on Ricci curvature. Michael will discuss the almost splitting theorem.

On 2nd March, 10h30-12h30, Salle des Profs, Ben Sibley gave the fourth talk in the working group on manifolds with lower Ricci bounds. He discussed the Cheng-Yau gradient estimate, quantitative maximum principles and the existence of special cut-off functions, all necessary technical ingredients for the almost splitting theorem which will be the topic of a future talk.

The next lower Ricci working group talk will be 10.30-12.30, on Wednesday 24th Feb, in the Salle de Profs. Note the slightly earlier start time! It will be given by Bruno, and he will explain the global Laplacian comparison theorem, the strong maximum principle and the Cheeger-Gromoll splitting theorem.

We are still looking for speakers for the last few working groups. If you’re interested then send me an email.

Hope to see you all there next Wednesday!

The working group on manifolds with lower bounds on Ricci curvature will continue on Wednesday 17th Feb, again 11h-13h in the Salle de Profs (9th floor, building NO). We finally turn to Riemannian geometry. I (Joel) will talk about the Bochner formula, the (local) Laplacian comparison theorem, the Bishop-Gromov volume comparison theorem and finally Gromov’s precompactness theorem for Riemannian manifolds with lower bounds on Ricci curvature.

The following people have kindly agreed to give talks:

• 24th Feb, Bruno Premoselli
• 2nd March, Ben Sibley
• 9th March, Michael Khanevsky

That still leaves three slots free, so don’t hesitate, volunteer today! Hope to see you all at the next talk.