## Departmental PhD Thesis Exam

Monday, February 22nd, 2010, 4:10 - 5 p.m.
in Room BA 3008, 40 St. George Street

Ph.D. Candidate:  Masrour Zoghi

Thesis Title:
The Gromov Width of Coadjoint Orbits of Compact Lie Groups

Thesis Abstract:
The first part of this thesis investigates the Gromov width of maximal
dimensional coadjoint orbits of compact simple Lie groups. An upper bound for the
Gromov width is provided for all compact simple Lie groups but only for those
coadjoint orbits that satisfy a certain technical assumption, whereas the lower
bound is proved only for groups of type A, but without the technical restriction.
The two bounds use very different techniques: the proof of the upper bound uses more
analytical tools, while the proof of the lower bound is more geometric.

The second part of the thesis is a short report on a joint project with my
supervisor, which was concerned with the relationship between two different
definitions of orbifolds: one using Lie groupoids and the other involving
diffeologies. The results are summarized in Chapter 5 of this text.

The thesis can be found at
http://www.math.toronto.edu/mzoghi/public/ut-thesis.pdf

Refreshments will be served in the Math Lounge before the
exam.