Condensed matter electronic systems endowed with odd time-reversal symmetry (TRS) (a.k.a. class AII topological insulators) show topologically protected phases which are described by an invariant known as Fu-Kane-Mele index. The construction of this in- variant, in its original form, is specific for electrons in a periodic background and is not immediately generalizable to other interesting physical models where different forms of TRS also play a role. By exploiting the fact that system with an odd TRS (in absence of disorder) can be classified by Quaternionic vector bundles, we introduce a Quaternionic topological invariant, called FKMM-invariant, which generalizes and explains the topological nature of the Fu-Kane-Mele index. We show that the FKMM-invariant is a universal characteristic class which can be defined for Quaternionic vector bundles in full generality, independently of the particular nature of the base space. Moreover, it suffices to discriminate among different topological phases of system with an odd TRS in low dimension. As a particular application we describe the complete classification over a big class of low dimensional involutive spheres and tori. We also compare our classification with recent results concerning the description of topological phases for two-dimensional adiabatically perturbed systems.
Joint work with: K. Gomi.[-]

It has been observed by physicists (Isaacson, Burnett, Green-Wald) that metric perturbations of a background solution, which are small amplitude but with high frequency, yield at the limit to a non trivial contribution which corresponds to the presence of an energy impulsion tensor in the equation for the background metric. This non trivial contribution is of due to the nonlinearities in Einstein equations, which involve products of derivatives of the metric. It has been conjectured by Burnett that the only tensors which can be obtained this way are massless Vlasov, and it has been proved by Green and Wald that the limit tensor must be traceless and satisfy the dominant energy condition. The known exemples of this phenomena are constructed under symmetry reductions which involve two Killing fields and lead to an energy impulsion tensor which consists in at most two dust fields propagating in null directions. In this talk, I will explain our construction, under a symmetry reduction involving one Killing field, which leads to an energy impulsion tensor consisting in N dust fields propagating in arbitrary null directions. This is a joint work with Jonathan Luk (Stanford).[-]

We will describe the construction of complete non-compact Ricci-flat manifolds of dimension 7 and 8 with holonomy $G_{2}$ and Spin(7) respectively. The examples we consider all have non-maximal volume growth and an asymptotic geometry, so-called ALC geometry, that generalises to higher dimension the asymptotic geometry of 4-dimensional ALF hyperkähler metrics. The interest in these metrics is motivated by the study of codimension 1 collapse of compact manifolds with exceptional holonomy. The constructions we will describe are based on the study of adiabatic limits of ALC metrics on principal Seifert circle fibrations over asymptotically conical orbifolds, cohomogeneity one techniques and the desingularisation of ALC spaces with isolated conical singularities. The talk is partially based on joint work with Mark Haskins and Johannes Nordstrm.[-]