Lawrence Mouillé, Rice University

Title: Torus actions on manifolds with positive intermediate
Ricci curvature

Abstract: A large body of research has been developed to
address the following question: "Can we classify closed, positively
curved manifolds that have large torus symmetries?" Essential tools in
this area include Berger's Killing Field Zero-Set Theorem and
Wilking's Connectedness Principle. In this talk, I will address the
corresponding question for manifolds with positive k^th-intermediate
Ricci curvature. This curvature condition on an n-manifold
interpolates between positive sectional curvature (k = 1) and positive
Ricci curvature (k = n - 1). I will show how Berger's result and
Wilking's result generalize to positive intermediate Ricci
curvature. I will also present classification results for manifolds of
positive 2^nd-intermediate Ricci curvature with large torus
symmetries.