Oliver Club

Igor DolgachevUniversity of Michigan
Kummer surfaces: 200 years of study

Thursday, October 10, 2019 - 4:30pm
Malott 251

Kummer surfaces are omnipresent in topology, differential geometry,
number theory, algebraic geometry, and string theory. Numerous
beautiful computer images and sculpture models of Kummer surfaces can
be found on the Internet. In my talk I will briefly review the history
of their discovery that originates from the work of Augustin-Jean
Fresnel in 1821 on the wave surface describing the propagation of
light in biaxial crystals. Then I will discuss later and current
progress in the study of Kummer surfaces. One of the major actors in
this story is Professor John Irwin Hutchinson who was on the faculty
at Cornell in 1894-1935.

Refreshments will be served at 4:00 PM.