The goal of this seminar is to introduce participants to geometric group theory. In the first four weeks, Jake Landgraf will give a minicourse (notes below). The following weeks, participants will give talks and lead problem sessions on related topics of their choice.

Jake has provided a description of the minicourse and some ideas for related topics: Link.

Organizers: Jens Jakob Kjaer and J.D. Quigley
Seminar: Wednesday, 4-5pm, Hurley 258
Problem session: Tuesday, 9:20-10:20am, Hurley 258

Schedule

• August 29
  Minicourse: Part 1 (Jake Landgraf)
  Notes Exercises
• September 5
  Minicourse: Part 2 (Jake Landgraf)
  Notes Exercises
• September 12
  Minicourse: Part 3 (Jake Landgraf)
  Notes Exercises
• September 19
  Minicourse: Part 4 (Jake Landgraf)
  Notes Exercises
• September 26
  Ends of groups (Sarah Petersen)
  Notes Exercises
• October 3
  Colloquium - no seminar
• October 10
  Group homology and cohomology (Nikolai Konovalov)
  Notes Exercises
• October 17
  Mid-term break - no seminar
  
• October 24
  Bounded cohomology and foliated bundles (Hari Rau-Murthy)
  Notes Exercises
• October 31
  Gromov's polynomial growth theorem (Daniel Studenmund)
  Notes Exercises
• November 7
  Finiteness conditions (TJ Warner)
  Notes Exercises
• November 14
  Ordered groups (Tim Campion)
  Notes Exercises
• November 21
  Thanksgiving break - no seminar
  
• November 28
  The Mostow rigidity theorem (Taylor Sutton)
  Notes Exercises
• December 5
  Mapping class groups and the Dehn-Nielsen-Baer theorem (Laura Wells)
  Notes Exercises
• December 12
  Lattices, mapping class groups, and Out(F_n) (Daniel Studenmund)
  Notes