Varifolds, i.e. Radon measures on the Grassmannian bundle of unoriented tangent d-planes of a Riemannian n-manifold M, with d<n, represent a variational generalization of unoriented, d-dimensional submanifolds of M. By a suitable extension of classical variation operators, we introduce a notion of approximate second fundamental form that is well-defined for a generic varifold. Rectifiability, compactness, and convergence results are proved, showing in particular the consistency and stability of approximate curvatures with respect to varifold convergence. If restricted to the case of "discrete varifolds", this theory provides a new and general framework for extracting key features from discrete geometric data. Some numerical tests on point clouds (evaluation of curvatures and geometric flows, also in presence of noise and singularities) will be shown. We shall finally discuss some future perspectives and open problems. This is a joint research with Blanche Buet (Univ. Paris XI - Orsay) and Simon Masnou (Univ. Lyon 1).
About Pure mathematics seminars
We present regular seminars on a range of pure mathematics interests. Students, staff and visitors to UQ are welcome to attend, and to suggest speakers and topics.
Seminars are usually held on Tuesdays from 2 to 3pm.
Talks comprise 45 minutes of speaking time plus five minutes for questions and discussion.
Information for speakers
Researchers in all pure mathematics fields attend our seminars, so please aim your presentation at a general mathematical audience.
Contact us
To volunteer to talk or to suggest a speaker, email Ole Warnaar or Ramiro Lafuente.