Irina Markina: Sub-Riemannian geometry in a nutshell

Since a few people in the program are familiar with the subject of sub-Riemannian geometry an introductory talk into this subject will be presented. Apart of basic definitions, we compare similarities and peculiarities of the sub-Riemannian geometry - versus the Riemannian geometry. We also present some problems from mathematics, mechanics and physics, that could be formulated and solved on the language of the sub-Riemannian geometry.