[Lecture series]Xavier Goaoc, Topological methods for discrete geometry

Helly’s theorem, a classical result in discrete geometry, asserts that if n>d convex subsets of R^d have empty intersection, some d+1 of them must already have empty intersection. I will discuss some topological generalizations of Helly’s theorem, where convexity is replaced by connectivity assumptions on the nonempty intersections, that lead to non-embeddability results of Borsuk-Ulam type and to variations on Leray’s acyclic cover theorem (or the Nerve theorem).