SEMINAR: Mathematics & Statistics Colloquium: Groups, diagrams and geometries

Colloquium time date and location: 4pm, Thursday 29th January, Blakers Lecture Theatre

Speaker: Colva Roney-Dougal, University of St. Andrews.

Title: Groups, diagrams and geometries.

Abstract: The study of finitely-presented groups has been ongoing since the work of Hamilton in the 1850s - almost as long as group theory itself! This talk will be a gentle introduction to finitely-presented groups, with an emphasis on algorithms. I'll describe some finite diagrams, and some potentially infinite geometries, that are naturally associated with any finitely-presented group, and show how results about the diagrams and geometries prove structural results about the group, and vice versa.