The joint introductory workshop for the programs in Geometry and Dynamics for Discrete Subgroups of Higher Rank Lie Groups and Topological and Geometric Structures in Low Dimensions will feature lectures introducing subjects of interest to both programs, including Teichmuller Theory, geometry in higher rank, foliations and flows, Anosov groups and thermodynamic formalism,  mapping class groups, counting and equidistribution, and related topics. Minicourses will be targeted at early career researchers as well as specialists looking to find connections between the different subjects.

This workshop features a series of invited talks by experts across the fields of low-dimensional topology, homogeneous dynamics, and the geometry of symmetric spaces. Spanning all career stages, the event aims to foster a collaborative and supportive environment, particularly for early-career mathematicians, encouraging engagement, learning, and exploration in a welcoming academic setting.

The stable and unstable foliations near a singular orbit of a pseudo- Anosov flow in 3 dimensions. Courtesy Michael Landry.

Low dimensional topology is a meeting place for many objects and ideas from diverse areas of mathematics, including foliation theory, geometry, and smooth and conformal dynamics.   For instance, many foliations on 3-manifolds admit transverse flows, connecting (local) leafwise homeomorphisms to flow dynamics and the mapping class groups of the leaves.  Leafwise conformal or hyperbolic structures can be approached through Teichmüller theory, and connect again to one-dimensional dynamics through "universal circles" organizing compactifications of all the leaves or of the flow space.  Many of these ideas originate in work of Thurston but in recent years have diverged and are ripe for reconnection.  

The program will bring together experts in all these fields together with younger researchers, who together can form new connections and open new areas for exploration.

<p>This figure depicts dynamics of flows on convex cocompact hyperbolic 3-manifolds; where the girl is a traveller along a horocycle.</p>

This research program will bring together two intellectual communities that have made significant advances in the study of discrete subgroups of higher rank semisimple Lie groups: the homogeneous dynamics community and the community studying geometric structures and Anosov groups.