Benson Farb - Mapping class groups of K3 surfaces from a Thurstonian viewpoint, II
February 9, 2024 - Princeton University
In the early 1980's Donaldson introduced moduli spaces of connections as a tool for studying smooth 4-manifolds and their diffeomorphisms . In this talk I will explain how other moduli spaces (of complex structures, of Ricci-flat metrics, of elliptic fibrations, etc.) can be used to understand diffeomorphisms of 4-manifolds. ln particular I will explain how this viewpoint can be applied to the Nielsen Realization Problem for K3 surfaces.
This is joint work with Eduard Looijenga.