Tue, 03 Mar 2026
15:00
L6

The Dehn function of Thompson's group T

Matteo Migliorini
Abstract

Thompson’s groups, introduced by Thompson in 1965, have had a lot of attention in the last fifty years. Being finitely presented, a natural question is to compute their Dehn function. All three groups are conjectured to have quadratic Dehn function; this conjecture was confirmed for Thompson’s group 𝐹 by Guba in 2006. During Matteo Migliorini's talk, we show how to deduce from Guba’s result that Thompson’s group 𝑇 has a quadratic Dehn function as well.

Tue, 24 Feb 2026
15:00
L6

PD₃ + (T)

Cameron Rudd
((Mathematical Institute University of Oxford))
Abstract

I'll discuss how to show 3D Poincaré duality and residual finiteness are together incompatible with property (T).

Tue, 17 Feb 2026
15:00
L6

A secondary L^2 obstruction to fibering over the circle

Ian Leary
Abstract

We give examples to show that theorems of S Fisher and D Kielak 
relating the vanishing of L^2 cohomology to fibering over the 
circle for RFRS groups cannot be extended to some larger classes
of groups, and we introduce an L^2-torsion invariant that may 
prove useful. 

(Joint with Sam Hughes and Wolfgang Lueck) 

Tue, 10 Feb 2026
15:00
L6

The kernel knows

Nansen Petrosyan
Abstract
For a graph product of groups, the canonical map to the direct product of the vertex groups has a kernel whose structure is not immediately apparent. Remarkably, this kernel turns out to be oblivious to most of the algebra one builds into the construction, yet it is sensitive to the underlying combinatorics.
This has applications to the Baum--Connes conjecture, Brown's question, the Eilenberg--Ganea conjecture and inheritance properties of graph products of groups. 
Nansen Petrosyan will survey known results and discuss joint work with Ian Leary.
Tue, 03 Feb 2026
15:00
L6

Divergence in groups with micro-supported actions

Letizia Issini
Abstract
The divergence of a group is a quasi-isometry invariant that measures how difficult it is to connect two points while avoiding a ball around the identity. It is easy to see that it is linear for direct products and deduce the same result for branch groups (a class of groups acting on rooted trees, for example the Grigorchuk group). I will discuss divergence for weakly branch groups, in particular the Basilica group. I will also present a generalisation for certain groups admitting a micro-supported action on a Hausdorff topological space, i.e containing elements with arbitrarily small support.
Joint work in progress with D. Francoeur and T. Nagnibeda
Tue, 27 Jan 2026
15:00
L6

JSJ decomposition and generalized Baumslag-Solitar groups

Dario Ascari
Abstract

The theory of JSJ decomposition plays a key role in the classification of hyperbolic groups, in analogy with the case of 3-manifolds. While this theory can be extended to larger families of groups, the JSJ decomposition displays significant flexibility in general, making a complete understanding of its behaviour more challenging. In this talk, Dario Ascari explores this flexibility, with an emphasis on the case of generalized Baumslag-Solitar groups.

Tue, 20 Jan 2026
15:00
L6

Waist inequalities on groups and spaces

David Hume
Abstract
The waist inequality is a topologist's version of the rank-nullity theorem in linear algebra. It states that for any continuous map from a ball of radius $R$ in $\mathbb R^n$ to $\mathbb R^q$ there is a point in $\mathbb R^q$ whose preimage is comparable in size to the ball of radius $R$ in $\mathbb R^{n-q}$.
 
There are now several proofs of this remarkable result. This talk will focus on a particular "coarse" version due to Gromov that lends itself to applications in coarse geometry and geometric group theory. I will formally introduce these new tools, explain the (few) things we already know about them, and give many suggestions for things we really ought to know.
Mon, 13 Oct 2025
16:45
L5

Varieties over free associative algebras

Zlil Sela
Abstract
In the 1960s and 1970s ring theorists (P. M. Cohn, G.Bergman and others) tried to study the structure of sets of solutions to systems of (polynomial) equations (varieties) over free associative algebras. They found significant pathologies that demonstrated the difficulty to achieve their goal.
 
In an ongoing joint work with A. Atkarskaya we modify techniques that were used to study varieties over free groups and semigroups to study the structure of varieties over associative algebras. Along the way we find new structures also in free groups and semigroups. 
Mon, 01 Dec 2025
14:15
L4

Bubble sheets and $\kappa$-solutions in four-dimensional Ricci flow

Patrick Donovan
(UNSW Sydney)
Abstract

As discovered by Perelman, the study of ancient Ricci flows which are $\kappa$-noncollapsed is a crucial prerequisite to understanding the singularity behaviour of more general Ricci flows. In dimension three, these so-called "$\kappa$-solutions" have been fully classified through the groundbreaking work of Brendle, Daskalopoulos, and Šešum. Their classification result can be extended to higher dimensions, but only for those Ricci flows that have uniformly positive isotropic curvature (PIC), as well as weakly-positive isotropic curvature of the second type (PIC2); it appears the classification result fails with only minor modifications to the curvature assumption. Indeed, with the alternative assumption of non-negative curvature operator, a rich variety of new examples emerge, as recently constructed by Buttsworth, Lai, and Haslhofer; Haslhofer himself has conjectured that this list of non-negatively curved $\kappa$-solutions is now exhaustive in dimension four. In this talk, we will discuss some recent progress towards resolving Haslhofer's conjecture, including a compactness result for non-negatively curved $\kappa$-solutions in dimension four, and a symmetry improvement result for bubble-sheet regions. This is joint work with Anusha Krishnan and Timothy Buttsworth. 

Mon, 24 Nov 2025
14:15
L4

Towards a Taub-Bolt to Taub-NUT via Ricci flow with surgery

John Hughes
(Oxford University)
Abstract

A conjecture of Holzegel, Schmelzer and Warnick states that there is a Ricci flow with surgery connecting the two Ricci flat metrics Taub-Bolt and Taub-NUT. We will present some recent progress towards proving this conjecture. This includes showing for the first time the existence of a Ricci flow with surgery with local topology change $\mathbb{CP}^2\setminus\{ \mathrm{pt}\} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^4$.

Subscribe to