Joint Colloquium: Incidence geometry and tiled surfaces
COLLOQUIUMS: HARVARD-MIT-BU-BRANDEIS-NORTHEASTERN
When: October 9, 2025
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Where: Science Center Hall D
Address:
1 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
Speaker: Sergey Fomin (Michigan)
Harvard-MITA-BU-Brandeis-Northeastern Joint Colloquium
We show that various classical theorems of linear incidence geometry, such as the theorems of Pappus, Desargues, Möbius, and so on, can be interpreted as special cases of a general result that involves a tiling of a closed oriented surface by quadrilateral tiles. This yields a general mechanism for producing new incidence theorems and generalizing and interpreting the known ones.
This is joint work with Pavlo Pylyavskyy.
Tea at 4:00 pm, Math Common Room, SC 4th floor
Talk at 4:30 pm, SC Hall D