It is known from general relativity that axisymmetric stationary black holes can be reduced to axisymmetric harmonic maps into the hyperbolic plane $H^2$, while in the Riemannian setting, 4d Ricci-flat metrics with torus symmetry can also be locally reduced to such harmonic maps satisfying a tameness condition. We study such harmonic maps. Applications include a construction of infinitely many new complete, asymptotically flat, Ricci-flat 4-manifolds with arbitrarily large $b_2$. Joint work with Song Sun.

The Mobius strip; collapsing the equator; exploding a point in the plane; geometric definition of blowups; the secant construction; pull-backs of curves under blowup.

The algebraic definition of blowups; the blowup in affine charts; birational maps; the strict and total transforms of varieties and vector fields.

Axiomatic definition of blowups; Cartier divisors; base change property; persistence properties.

First examples of resolutions; curves and surfaces; effect of blowups on polynomials; singularity invariants; lexicographic orderings.

Choice of centers of blowup; descent in dimension; lexicographic decrease of invariant; transversality; obstructions in positive characteristic; resolution of planar vector fields.