The gap in the isoperimetric spectrum

The Dehn function of a group measures the complexity of the group's word problem, being the upper bound on the number of relations from a group presentation required to prove that a word in the generators represents the identity element. The Filling Theorem which was first stated by Gromov connects this to the isoperimetric functions of Riemannian manifolds. In this talk, we will see the classification of hyperbolic groups as those with a linear Dehn function, and give Bowditch's proof that a subquadratic isoperimetric inequality implies a linear one (which gives the only gap in the "isoperimetric spectrum" of exponents of polynomial Dehn functions).