Laplacian flow in G_2-geometry

Jason Lotay (UC London)

Abstract: A key challenge in Riemannian geometry is to find Ricci-flat
metrics on compact manifolds.  All non-trivial examples of such metrics
have special holonomy, and the only special holonomy metrics which can
occur in odd dimensions must be in dimension 7 and have holonomy G_2.  
I will describe progress on a proposed geometric flow method for finding
metrics with holonomy G_2, called the Laplacian flow.  
This is joint work with Yong Wei.