A relaxed-pace seminar on impromptu subjects related to the interests of the audience.

Everyone is welcome.

The subjects are geometry, probability, combinatorics, dynamics, and more!

Abstract: Given a smooth surface in Euclidean 3-space, a classical question in differential geometry asks whether the surface can be continuously deformed through a smooth, nontrivial family of isometric surfaces. If such a family exists and does not arise from rigid motions of R^3, then the surface is said to be flexible. An old conjecture asserts that flexible, smooth closed surfaces do not exist. In this talk, we survey this question and the general uniqueness problem for isometric immersions. We then present new examples of flexible, smooth immersed cylinders in R^3 which are neither flat nor minimal. We conclude with a discussion of potential approaches to the construction of flexible, smooth closed surfaces. These results are part of upcoming work with Andrew Sageman-Furnas.