Texas A&M University, Department of
Mathematics
Groups and Dynamics Seminar
Fall 2009
Time and Place
Unless otherwise stated, the Groups and Dynamics Seminar
meeting
coordinates are
- Time:
Wednesdays 3:00p.m.--3:50p.m.
- Place: 216
Milner Hall
Schedule
- 16th of September, 2009
Speaker: David Kerr of Texas
A&M University
Title: On Furstenberg's proof of Szemeredi's Theorem. Abstract.
- 23rd of September, 2009
Speaker: Piotr Nowak of Texas
A&M University
Title: A geometric approach to Kazhdan's property (T) and Kazhdan constants, I. Abstract.
- 30th of September, 2009
Speaker: Rostyslav Kravchenko of Texas
A&M University
Title: Measures on limit spaces of self-similar groups. Abstract.
- 7th of October, 2009
Speaker: Greg Kelsey of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Title: Obstructed topological polynomials realizing particular ramification graphs. Abstract.
- 14th of October, 2009
Speaker: Piotr Nowak of Texas
A&M University
Title: A geometric approach to Kazhdan's property (T) and Kazhdan constants, II. Abstract.
- 21st of October, 2009, 3:00-3:50
Speaker: Jerry Kaminker of University of California at Davis
Title: Generalized expanders. Abstract.
- 21st of October, 2009, 4:00-4:50
Speaker: Lewis Bowen of Texas A&M University
Title: Free subgroups of lattices. Abstract.
- 28th of October, 2009, 4:00-4:50
Speaker: Reiji Tomatsu of Tokyo University of Science
Title: Shavgulidze's recent results on Thomson's group F. Abstract.
- 4th of November, 2009, 3:00-3:50
Speaker: Volodymyr Nekrashevych of Texas A&M University
Title: Simplicial approximations of Julia sets, I. Abstract.
- 11th of November, 2009, 3:00-3:50
Speaker: Volodymyr Nekrashevych of Texas A&M University
Title: Simplicial approximations of Julia sets, II. Abstract.
- 18th of November, 2009, 3:00-3:50
Speaker: Kateryna Iushchenko of Texas A&M University
Title: Exampes of hyperlinear groups without factorization property. Abstract.
- 25th of November, 2009, 3:00-3:50
Speaker: Volodymyr Nekrashevych of Texas A&M University
Title: Representation of groups acting on rooted trees by triangular matrices. Abstract.
- 2nd of December, 2009, 3:00-3:50
Speaker: Mustafa Benli of Texas A&M University
Title: Indicable groups and endomorphic presentations. Abstract.
Topics:
GENERAL PROBLEMS Burnside
Problem on torsion groups, Milnor Problem on growth, Kaplanski
Problems on zero divisors, Kaplanski-Kadison Conjecture on
Idempotents, and other famous problems of Algebra, Low-Dimensional
Topology, and Analysis, which have algebraic roots.
GROUPS AND GROUP ACTIONS Group actions on trees
and
other geometric objects, lattices in Lie groups, fundamental groups of
manifolds, and groups of automorphisms of various structures. The key
is
to view everything from different points of view: algebraic,
combinatorial, geometric, and probabalistic.
RANDOMNESS Random walks on groups, statistics on
groups, and statistical models of physics on groups and graphs (such as
the Ising model and Dimer model).
COMBINATORICS Combinatorial properties of
finitely-generated groups and the geometry of their Caley graphs and
Schreier graphs.
GROUP BOUNDARIES Boundaries of
finitely generated groups: Freidental, Poisson, Furstenberg, Gromov,
Martin, etc., boundaries.
AUTOMATA Groups, semigroups, and
finite
(and infinite) automata. This includes the theory of formal languages,
groups generated by finite automata, and automatic groups.
DYNAMICS Connections between group theory and
dynamical systems (in particular the link between fractal groups and
holomorphic dynamics, and between branch groups and substitutional
dynamical systems).
FRACTALS Fractal mathematics, related to
self-similar groups and branch groups.
COHOMOLOGY Bounded cohomology, L^2 cohomology, and
their relation to other subjects, in particular operator algebras.
AMENABILITY Asymptotic properties such as
amenability and
superamenability, Kazhdan property T, growth, and cogrowth.
ANALYSIS Various topics in Analysis related to
groups (in particular spectral theory of discrete Laplace operators on
graphs and groups).
Previous semesters
Spring
2003
Fall
2003 Spring
2004
Fall
2004 Spring
2005
Fall
2005 Spring
2006
Fall
2006 Spring
2007
Fall
2007 Spring
2008
Fall
2008 Spring 2009