Guest lectures and seminars - Page 97

Speaker: Giuseppe Coclite (University of Bari)

Title: Nonlinear Peridynamic Models

Abstract: Some materials may naturally form discontinuities such as cracks as a result of scale effects and long range interactions. Peridynamic models such behavior introducing a new nonlocal framework for the basic equations of continuum mechanics. In this lecture we consider a nonlinear peridynamic model and discuss its well-posedness in suitable fractional Sobolev spaces. Those results were obtained in collaboration with S. Dipierro (Milano), F. Maddalena (Bari) and E. Valdinoci (Milano).

Inspired by the Voevodsky machinery of standard triples a machinery of nice triples was invented in [PSV]. We develop further the latter machiny such that it works also in the finite field case [P]. This machinary is a tool to prove many interesting moving lemmas. It leads to a serios of applications. One of them is a proof of the Grothendieck--Serre conjecture in the finite field case. Another is a proof of Gersten type results for arbitrary cohomology theories on algebraic varieties. The Gersen type results allows to conclude the following: a presheaf of S1-spectra E on the category of k-smooth schemes is A1-local iff all its Nisnevich sheaves of stable A1-homotopy groups are strictly homotopy invariant. If the field k is infinite, then the latter result is due to Morel [M]. An example of moving lemma is this. Let X be a k-smooth quasi-projective irreducible k-variety, Z be its closed subset and x be a finite subset of closed points in X. Then there exists a Zariski open U containing x and a naive A1-homotopy between the motivic space morphism U--> X--> X/U and the morphism U--> X/U sending U to the distinguished point of X/U. Application: suppose E is a cohomology theory on k-smooth varieties and alpha is an E-cohomology class on X which vanishes on the complement of Z, then it vanishes on U from the lemma above.   

Soft and Wet is Different

In this second talk, I will define Chekanov's version of Legendrian contact homology (LCH) for Legendrian knots in R3. I will begin with an example, showing that LCH is more sensitive than the classical invariants. This will use a linearized version of the homology. In the second part of the talk I will focus on the proof that the differential indeed squares to zero, and also say something about invariance under Legendrian Reidemeister moves. This is intended to be a smooth introduction to the next talk, where we will consider Legendrian contact homology defined for Legendrians in arbitrary 1-jet spaces. This case is more delicate, and we have to understand the concept of Gromov compactness for pseudo-holomorphic curves to prove that we get a differential graded algebra associated to each Legendrian, whose homology will give a Legendrian invariant.