Please note this event occurred in the past.
April 07, 2025 1:20 pm - 2:30 pm ET
Joint Math/Physics Seminar
Colloquium Room LGRT 1681

Speaker: Isaac Pliskin (UMass Math&Physics)

Students of general relativity or Riemannian geometry are introduced to the Levi-Civita connection: the unique metric-compatible and torsion-free connection on a Riemannian manifold. Classes in these subjects rarely, if ever, address the question of why we want the connection to be torsion-free and the implications of a non-vanishing torsion.  In this talk we will turn to Cartan's original inspirations for generalizing Riemannian geometry, namely Einstein Gravity and Cosserat Elasticity, in an attempt to build a physical intuition for themeaning of torsion within Riemann-Cartan geometry.