MaPSS: Maths Postgraduate Seminar Series: Joel Gibson -- A Brief Introduction to Differential Forms

Dear all, 

The next MaPSS seminar seminar will be held on Monday, the 12th of March at 17:00 in
Carslaw 535.  There will be pizza and soft drink provided following the talk.  

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Speaker: Joel Gibson (The University of Sydney) 

Title: A Brief Introduction to Differential Forms 

Abstract: The language of differential forms was developed in order to do calculus on
(oriented) manifolds, particularly in more than three dimensions, where a plane is no
longer determined by a normal vector.  In this talk, I will give an introduction to
integration using differential forms, with many examples in three dimensions relating
back to the usual curve, surface, and volume integrals.  Using this language, the
gradient, curl, and divergence operators are replaced by a single operator, and Stokes’,
the divergence, and fundamental theorems of calculus are replaced by a single equation.
Time permitting, I will mention de Rham’s theorem, relating the cohomology of a manifold
to solutions of differential equations.  

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Staff, please encourage your students to attend.