Discovering the geometry of the universe

Dr Mario Micallef from Warwick University is giving a public lecture to the Malta Mathematical Society, entitled 'From Poincaré and Einstein to Perelman: discovering the geometry of the universe' on Thursday at 6.30 p.m. in Room 216 of the Mathematics...

Dr Mario Micallef from Warwick University is giving a public lecture to the Malta Mathematical Society, entitled 'From Poincaré and Einstein to Perelman: discovering the geometry of the universe' on Thursday at 6.30 p.m. in Room 216 of the Mathematics and Physics Building.

Einstein's theory of relativity is a geometric theory of gravitation. What would it be like to live in a bounded flat universe, which has no boundaries? It would seem like a room all of whose walls are mirrors, yielding infinitely many reflections.

Universes that are not flat, and yet still very symmetric, have even more fascinating properties. Some of these spaces were studied by Poincaré at the turn of the century. They led to a mathematical conjecture whose solution has been announced in the last couple of years by Grigory (Grisha) Perelman, based on earlier work of Hamilton.

For this, he was offered the most prestigious prize offered by the mathematical community, the Fields Medal. But Grisha turned it down. Why?

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