Prof. Dr. Petra Schwer
building 03, room 206a
Tel. +49 391 67 52576
Fax. +49 391 67 41213
petra.schwer@ovgu.de
Petra Schwer
Petra Schwer
Geometry Group
Since December 2018 I am professor for geometry in Magdeburg.
My research interests lie at the interface between geometry and group theory. I am particularly interested in metric spaces of nonpositive curvature, polyhedral complexes and group actions on them. I study geometric and combinatorial aspects of Coxeter groups, (Bruhat-Tits) buildings and their generalizations.
Most of what I do is inspired by methods in geometric group theory and metric geometry. But I do like to apply these methods to other areas.
I am (among other things) active as
- PI within the priority program SPP 2026 Geometry at infinity since 2016
- PI within the graduate program MathCore since 2018
- Editor at Innovations in Incidence Geometry (consider publishing with us!)
- co-founder of MatheLabor Magdeburg
- podcast host at Pi ist genau 3 - a math podcast together with Thomas Kahle
- Find me on Mastodon as petraschwer - at - mathstodon.xyz
If you are interested in writing your PhD with me feel free to contact me.
I am also happy to support postdoc applications, e.g. via suitable DFG, DAAD, Marie Curie or Alexander von Humboldt programs.
In 2020 I wrote a guideline (in German) on how to read mathematics, such as text books, lecture notes, etc.. as part of my inverted classroom Linear Algebra course.
Feel free to share it!
- Extended intro on how to read Math (in German)
- Cheat Sheat on how to read Math (in German)
Preprints:
- Yuri Santos Rego, Petra Schwer: The galaxy of Coxeter groups, arXiv:2211.17038 [math.GR], (2022)
- Elizabeth Milićević, Petra Schwer, Anne Thomas: Chimney retractions in affine buildings encode orbits in affine flag
varieties, arXiv:2207.12923 [math.GR], (2022) - Corina Ciobotaru, Linus Kramer, Petra Schwer: Polyhedral compactifications,arXiv:2002.12422 [math.MG] (2020)
Reviewed articles:
- Aiko Voigt, Petra Schwer, Noam von Rotberg, Nicole Knopf. TriCCo -- a cubulation-based method for computing connected components on triangular grids, arXiv:2111.13761 [math.GR] , published at GMD, (2022)
- Elizabeth Milićević, Petra Schwer, Anne Thomas: Affine Deligne-Lusztig varieties and folded galleries governed by chimneys. arXiv:2111.13761 [math.GR], to appear in Annales l'Institut Fourier (2022).
- Elizabeth Milićević, Yusra Naqvi, Petra Schwer, Anne Thomas: A gallery model for affine flag varieties via chimney retractions. arXiv:1912.09911 [math.RT], Transform. Groups (2022).
- Petra Schwer: Shadows in the wild -- folded galleries and their applications. arXiv:2109.02293 [math.RT], Jahresbericht der DMV (2022) .
- Annette Karrer, Petra Schwer and Koen Struyve: : The triangle groups (2,4,4), (2,4,5) and (2,5,5) are not systolic. arXiv:1812.08567, Graphs and combinatorics (2020).
- Petra Schwer and David Weniger: A structure theorem for generalized affine buildings. arXiv:1801.10394 math.MG, Journal of Geometry (2019).
- Elizabeth Milićević, Petra Schwer und Anne Thomas: Dimensions of affine Deligne-Lusztig varieties: a new approach via labeled folded alcove walks and root operators. arxiv.org/abs/1504.07076, Memoirs of the AMS (2019).
- Joel Brewster Lewis, Jon McCammond, T. Kyle Petersen, Petra Schwer: Computing reflection length in an affine Coxeter group. Transactions of the AMS (2018).
- Julia Heller und Petra Schwer: Generalized non-crossing Partitions and Buildings. Electronic Journal of Combinatorics (2018).
- Petra Schwer: Folding operators, root groups and retractions. Jornal of Combinatorial Algebra (2018).
- Thomas Haettel, Dawid Kielak and Petra Schwer: The 6-strand braid group is CAT(0). arxiv.org/abs/1304.5990, Geometriae Dedicata (2016).
- Piotr Przytycki and Petra Schwer: Systolizing buildings. arxiv.org/abs/1310.5525, GGD (2015).
- Petra Schwer and Koen Struyve: Epimorphisms of pseudo-quadratic polar spaces. arxiv.org/abs/1210.8356, Journal of Algebra (2015).
- Curt Bennett, Petra Schwer and Koen Struyve: On axiomatic definitions of non-discrete affine buildings. Advances in Geometry (2014).
- Petra Schwer and Koen Struyve: $\Lambda$-buildings and base change functors. DOI: 10.1007/s10711-011-9611-2, Geometriae Dedicata (2011).
- Petra Hitzelberger: Non-discrete affine buildings and Convexity. Advances in Mathematics, vol.227 (2011) 210 - 244
- Petra Hitzelberger, Linus Kramer and Richard Weiss: Non-discrete Euclidean Buildings for the Ree and Suzuki groups. American Journal of Mathematics, vol. 132, no. 4 (2010) 1113-1152
- Petra Hitzelberger: Kostant convexity for affine buildings. Forum Mathematicum, vol. 22, no. 5 (2010) 959-971
- Petra Hitzelberger and Alexander Lytchak: Spaces with many affine functions. Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 135 (2007), 2263-2271
- Extended Abstract of: Computing reflection length in an affine Coxeter group with Joel Brewster Lewis, Jon McCammond, T. Kyle Petersen will be presented as a talk at FPSAC 2018.
Practice-based Articles:
- Petra Schwer: Anleitung zum Lesen mathematischer Texte, (Kurzversion), (2020)
-
Stefanie Rach, Silke Neuhaus-Eckhardt, Petra Schwer, Strategien zum Lesen mathematischer Texte lernen: Konzeption einer Erstsemestervorlesung und Evaluation. Dowload here. (2022).
Further Writing:
- Petra Schwer: Lecture notes on CAT(0) cube complexes. arXiv:1910.06815 [math.GR], also at AMS Open Math Notes.
- Petra Hitzelberger: Generalized affine buildings: Automorphisms, affine Suzuki-Ree Buildings and Convexity. Doctoral thesis (2009).
You have possibly seen me (or will have the chance to see me) give a talk on one of the following occasions (since 2018):
2023
Juni - Conference "Representation Theory", Lyon (F)
Mai - GAGTA 2023, Wien (AT)
Januar - Vortrag in der Reihe "Karriereeinblicke" der Fakultät für Mathematik in Halle, (D)
Januar - Vortrag im Kolloquium der Mathematik, Halle (D)
2022
Dezember - Vortrag in der Reihe "Frauen in der Mathematik" des Mathematischen Seminars der Uni Kiel, (D)
September - DMV Tagung, Algebra und Zahlentheorie Session, Berlin (D)
September - Conference "Geometry meets combinatorics", Bielefeld (D)
Juni - Algebra Seminar Frankfurt (D)
Februar - MFO Workshop "Geometric Structures in Group Theory", Oberwolfach, (D)
Januar - Kolloquium der Mathematik, Uni Hamburg (D)
2021
November - Geometry and Algebra Seminar in Newcastle, Newcastle (GB)
September - Workshop ”Combinatorics and representation theory“, Lausanne (CH)
August - Summer School The dual approach to Coxeter and Artin groups; Garside theory and applications“, Berlin (D)
Januar - Algebra Seminar Halle–Jena, virtuell
2020
Mai - Virtual Workshop Polyhedral Products in Geometric Group Theory“, Fields Institue Toronto, Toronto (CA)
März - Workshop "Combinatorial Coworkspace", Kleinwalsertal (AT)
Jan - Math+ Friday: Kolloquium der Berlin Mathematical School (D)
2019
Nov. - Workshop "Buildings and applications", MPI Leipzig (D)
Okt. - EWM Meeting, Leipzig (D)
Aug - Algebra Seminar, Sydney (AU)
July - Felix-Klein Kolloquium, Leipzig (D)
May - Mathematical Kolloquium, Göttingen (D)
Feb. - Conference "Geometric Analysis meets Geometric Topology", Heidelberg (D)
Feb. - ABCD Workshop, Aachen (D)
Jan. - Algebra Seminar, Köln (D)
Jan. - Bär Kolloquium, Magdeburg (D)
Jan. - Seminar Sophus Lie, Gießen (D)
2018
Nov. - Workshop "Groups in Madrid", Madrid (ESP)
Nov. - Workshop on Algebraic Combinatorics, Berlin (D)
Okt. - Buildings 2018, Münster (D)
Sept. - Fall school in Besse (F)
May - Oberseminar Analysis JLU-Gießen (D)
April - Séminaire Algèbre ICJ, Lyon (F)
March - Conference \emph{Geometry and Representation Theory of Algebraic Groups}, Bad Honnef (D)
Jan. - Algebra Seminar, TU Kaiserslautern (D)
Current supervision
PhD students
- Marco Lotz (OVGU, since 2019, joint with Thomas Kahle)
- Isobel Davies (OVGU, since 01/2021)
- Anna Michael (OVGU, since 04/2021)
Master theses
- Noam von Rotberg (2022, OVGU)
- Max Zander (2022, OVGU)
Bachelor theses
- Maria Grammel: Die Mathematik im Briefwechsel zwischen Escher und Coxeter (Summer 2022, OVGU)
- Nico Fischer (gemeinsam mit Alexander Trost, Sommer 2022, OVGU)
Theses written under my supervision
PhD students
Master/Diplom theses
- Mireille Soergel (SS 2018, Heidelberg)
- Valentin Braun (WS 2017/18, KIT)
- Peter Breul (WS 2017/18, KIT)
- Holger Mühlsteph (WS 2017/18, KIT)
- Marius Graeber (SS 2017, KIT)
- David Weniger (WS 2016/17, KIT)
Bachelor theses
- Yannick Steinkamp (2021, OVGU)
- Noam von Rotberg (2020, Uni Heidelberg)
- Jonas Labonte (SS 2018, KIT)
- Lena Eid (SS 2017, KIT)
- Laura Jesser (WS 2016/17, KIT)
- Stefan Lais (SS 2015, KIT)
Links
You can find out more about me here:
Media and press
- Uni:magazin: Mit Dreiecken das Wetter vorhersagen
- Pressemitteilung der OVGU zur Antrittsvorlesung
- Pressemitteilung der OVGU zur Berufung
- Modellansatz episode on metric geometry hosting Petra Schwer (in German)
- Young Investigator Network - introductory video - Petra Schwer
- Petra Schwer bei Scobel - die Magie der Mathematik (verfügbar bis Januar 2025)
Mathe Podcast
Pi ist genau - der Mathe Podcast aus Magdeburg
https://pi-ist-genau-3.de/
Mathematicians on the job
A series of job-talks I started at KIT: Mathematiker im Beruf (in German)
Petra Schwer is Professor for Geometry at the OVGU Magdeburg since 2018.
Former positions include
- 2014-2018 Juniorprofessor for Geometry, KIT Karlsruhe
- Spring 2018 Prof invitée in Saint Étienne (Frankreich)
- Winter 2017/18 substituting Prof. for Geometry, RKU Heidelberg
- 2011-2014 Research position (DFG Eigene Stelle), WWU Münster
- 2010 DAAD Scholarship, UC Davis (USA) and Institut Elie Cartan Nancy (Frankreich)
- 2010 - 2011 Comodity Risk Controlling, RWE Power AG in Essen.
- Winter 2007 Lecturer, Tufts University, Boston (USA)
- 2009 PhD in Mathematics, WWU Münster - Stipendium der Studienstiftung des deutschen Volker für die Promotion
- 2005 Diplom in Mathematics, Uni Bonn
Current teaching:
Current teaching:
This summer I am teaching :
For more on current courses @OVGU follow this link.
List of courses (since 2018):
Since winter 2018 I taught 17 distinct courses at the OVGU. Out of these 5 were aimed specifically towards students in Math Education and 5 towards students of other departments.
In 2022 I was nominated for the OVGU Lehrpreis.
Lectures offered towards students in either Bachelor or Master of Mathematics, or students studying towards a degree in Math Education:
- Grundlagen und Geschichte der Mathematik
Winter 2018/19 and 2019/20, 2SWS
Bachelor Berufsbildung, Fach Mathematik, Beruf und Bildung
- Einführung in die Geometrie
Summer 2019, 2021, 2022, 2+2 SWS
Berufsbildung, Beruf und Bildung, Lehramt an allgemeinbildenden Schulen - Metrische Geometrie
Summer 2019, 3+1 SWS
Master Mathematik - Geometrische Gruppentheorie
Winter 2019/20 and 2021/22, 4+2 SWS
Bachelor and Master Mathematik - Lineare Algebra 1
Winter 2020/21 and 2022/23, 4+2 SWS
Bachelor Mathematik - Lineare Algebra 2
Summer 2021 and 2023, 4+2 SWS
Bachelor Mathematik - Endliche Spiegelungsgruppen
Winter 2022/23, 2 SWS
handschriftliche Vorlesungsnotizen
Lehramt an allgemeinbildenden Schulen Fach Mathematik, Bachelor Mathematik - Coxetergruppen und Gebäude
Summer 2023, 3+1 SWS
Master Mathematik
Service Teaching (courses taught towards students of other departments):
- Mathematische Methoden 1
Winter 2019/20, 2+2 SWS
Bachelor Berufsbildung, Beruf und Bildung, BWL, VWL, Curltural Engineering - Mathematik 1 für Informatik (Zyklus B)
Winter 2020/21, 4+1 SWS
Bachelor Informatik, Computervisualistik, Ingenieuirinformatik, Wirtschaftsinformatik - Mathematik 1 für Ingenieure (Zyklus B)
Winter 2021/22, 6+2 SWS
Bachelor Berufsbildung, Beruf und Bildung, Ingenieurpädagogik, Elektromobilität, Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnologie, Smarte Systeme, Mechatronik, Medizintechnik, Systemtechnik und technische Kybernetik, Wirtschaftsingenieur - Mathematik 2a für Ingenieure (Zyklus B)
Summer 2022, 4+2 SWS
Bachelor Berufsbildung, Beruf und Bildung, Elektromobilität, Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnologie, Mechatronik, Medizintechnik, Systemtechnik und technische Kybernetik, Wirtschaftsingenieur - Mathematik 2b für Ingenieure (Zyklus B)
Winter 2022/23, 4+2 SWS
Bachelor Berufsbildung, Beruf und Bildung, Elektromobilität, Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnologie, Mechatronik, Medizintechnik, Systemtechnik und technische Kybernetik, Wirtschaftsingenieur, IT-Smarte-Systeme
Seminars (topics courses where the students prepare and give talks (approx. 60 to 90 minutes) based on assigned material)
- Seminar CAT(0) kubische Komplexe
Summer 2022, 2 SWS
Master Mathe - Proseminar Symmetrie
Summer 2021, 2 SWS
Lehramt Mathe, Bachelor Mathe - Seminar Geometrische Gruppentheorie
Summer 2020, 2 SWS
Master Mathe - Proseminar Perlen der Mathematik
Summer 2019, 2 SWS
Lehramt Mathe, Bachelor Mathe
Some old material:
Lecture on CAT(0) groups and geometry
In the summer of 2017 I was teaching the RTG lecture of our research training group in which I explained some of the nice properties CAT(0) groups and spaces.
The other half of the lecture was shared by Karin Melnick and Beatrice Pozetti.
Here are the scans of my lecture:
First session on Basics and examples.
Second session on The Bruhat-Tits fixedpoint theorem .
Third session on Gromov's link condition and other ways to test for CAT(0).
Fourth session on CAT(0) groups and Isometries of CAT(0) spaces.
Fifth session on The visual boundary and its relatives.
Teaching in Heidelberg Winter 2017/18
During the winter term 2017/18 I am a Visiting Professor at the University of Heidelberg replacing Prof. Anna Wienhard. I gave a student seminar on buildings as well as an introduction to Geometric Group Theory.
Weitere Infos zu den Lehrveranstaltungen finden Sie auf den entsprechenden Seiten im IAG.