Geometry & Topology Seminar

Geometry & Topology Seminar 

Date: Wednesday, 28 October 2026 

Time: 12noon-1pm 

Speaker: Alessandro Ottazzi (UNSW) 

Location: SMRI Seminar Room (Macleay A12 Room 301) 

Title: Sub-Riemannian manifolds and nilpotent Lie groups 

Abstract: The motion planning problem consists of finding curves that connect two given
points in a geodesic metric space.  Algorithms exist to construct such curves in the
setting of nilpotent Lie groups endowed with sub-Riemannian metrics.  We consider the
question of when sub-Riemannian manifolds are equivalent to sub-Riemannian nilpotent Lie
groups, in the sense that solutions to the motion planning problem can be transferred
between them.  We illustrate this with some examples.  The results are the outcome of
various collaborations.