DMS Colloquium: Dr. Henry Adams

Speaker:   Dr. Henry Adams (Colorado State University)

Title: What are Gromov-Hausdorff distances?

Abstract: The Gromov-Hausdorff distance is a notion of dissimilarity between two datasets or between two metric spaces. It is an important tool in geometry, but notoriously difficult to compute. In the first part of my talk, I will give an introduction to Gromov-Hausdorff distances. Then, in the second part of my talk, I will use tools from applied topology to give (potentially tight) lower bounds on the Gromov-Hausdorff distance between unit spheres of different dimensions. This is joint work in a polymath-style project with many people who are currently or formerly at Colorado State, Ohio State, Carnegie Mellon, or Freie Universität Berlin.

Faculty host: Dr. Ziqin Feng