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Thursday, May 10, 2012 - 1:00pm

Ivan Sterling

St. Mary's College of Maryland

Location

Drexel University

Korman Center, Room 245

We´ll start with new developments on a very old and simple problem: Classify the spherical curves of constant torsion. We will review the connection between curves of constant torsion and surfaces with constant negative Gaussian curvature ("pseudospherical surfaces"). We will survey the 200-year effort to classify pseudospherical surfaces, including some recent developments. An attempt will be made to show lots of graphics.