Distinguished Guest Lecturer

ON THE BETTI NUMBERS OF SEMI-ALGEBRAIC SETS

Professor Richard Pollack
The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
New York University

Friday, Sept. 10th
2:30pm; 480 Dreese Labs
All interested parties are invited.
Refreshments will be served immediately preceding the talk.

Abstract: We present a survey of old and recent results on Betti number bounds and their applications to discrete and computational geometry. The classic bounds on the sum of the Betti numbers, and their alternating sum (the Euler characteristic) are extended and improved in a variety of ways. We also describe applications to agebraic "Decision" Trees, Weaving Patterns, and Geometric Transversal Theory. No assumptions are made about prior knowledge of the audience (including the meaning of words in this abstract.)

Dr. Richard Pollack is Professor of Mathematics and Professor of Computer Science at the Courant Institute of New York University. He is founder and co-editor in chief of the journal "Discrete and Computational Geometry" and organizer of the Computational Geometry Days and the Geometry Seminar at New York University. He has published numerous papers on combinatorial and computational geometry and recently co-authored a book on real algebraic geometry.

Host: Rafe Wenger (wenger@cse.ohio-state.edu)