Topology Seminar
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Mon, 27/04/2009 15:45 |
Andras Juhasz (Cambridge) |
Topology Seminar  |
L3 |
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Mon, 04/05/2009 15:45 |
George Raptis (Oxford) |
Topology Seminar |
L3 |
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Mon, 11/05/2009 15:45 |
Stefan Schwede (Bonn) |
Topology Seminar |
L3 |
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Mon, 18/05/2009 15:45 |
Carl-Friedrich B¨odigheimer (Bonn) |
Topology Seminar |
L3 |
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Mon, 25/05/2009 00:00 |
Topology Seminar |
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Mon, 01/06/2009 15:45 |
Dr Cornelia Drutu (Oxford) |
Topology Seminar |
L3 |
| I shall describe the asymptotic geometry of the mapping class group, in particular its tree-graded structure and its equivariant embedding in a product of trees. This can be applied to study homomorphisms into mapping class groups defined on groups with property (T) and on lattices in semisimple groups. The talk is based upon two joint works with J. Behrstock, Sh. Mozes and M. Sapir. | |||
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Mon, 08/06/2009 15:45 |
Eric Guenter (Hawaii) |
Topology Seminar |
L3 |
| I shall describe the notion of finite decomposition complexity (FDC), introduced in joint work with Romain Tessera and Guoliang Yu on the Novikov and related conjectures. The talk will focus on the definition of FDC and examples of groups having FDC. | |||
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Mon, 15/06/2009 15:45 |
Kevin Walker (Microsoft) |
Topology Seminar |
L3 |
| We define a chain complex B_*(C, M) (the "blob complex") associated to an n-category C and an n-manifold M. This is in some sense the derived category version of a TQFT. Various special cases of the blob complex are familiar: (a) if M = S^1, then the blob complex is homotopy equivalent to the Hochschild complex of the 1-category C; (b) for * = 0, H_0 of the blob complex is the Hilbert space of the TQFT based on C; (c) if C is a commutative polynomial ring (viewed as an n-category), then the blob complex is homotopy equivalent to singular chains on the configuration (Dold-Thom) space of M. The blob complex enjoys various nice formal properties, including a higher dimensional generalization of the Deligne conjecture for Hochschild cohomology. If time allows I will discuss applications to contact structures on 3-manifolds and Khovanov homology for links in the boundaries of 4-manifolds. This is joint work with Scott Morrison. | |||
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Thu, 18/06/2009 11:00 |
Ian Agol (Berkeley) |
Topology Seminar |
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| Thurston asked a bold question of whether finite volume hyperbolic 3-manifolds might always admit a finite-sheeted cover which fibers over the circle. This talk will review some of the progress on this question, and discuss its relation to other questions including residual finiteness and subgroup separability, the behavior of Heegaard genus in finite-sheeted covers, CAT(0) cubings, the RFRS condition, and subgroups of right-angled Artin groups. In particular, hyperbolic 3-manifolds with LERF fundamental group are virtually fibered. Some applications of the techniques will also be mentioned. | |||
