Groups in Galway 2013
10-11 May, 2013
Groups in Galway has been running on an annual basis since 1978.
The scope of the conference covers all areas of group theory,
applications, and related fields. All who are interested are invited
to attend. There is no conference fee. The webpage of last year's
Groups in Galway conference is
located here.
Speakers
Confirmed speakers at the moment include
-
Sean Cleary (New York)
-
Juan Gonzales-Meneses (Seville)
-
Jean-Baptiste Gramain (Aberdeen)
-
Daniel Groves (Illinois)
-
Jérôme Los (Marseille)
-
Brita Nucinkis (Royal Holloway)
-
Martyn Quick (St Andrews)
-
Emil Sköldberg (Galway)
-
Pascal Weil (Bordeaux)
Schedule
Below is a tentative schedule which may still change but only minimally.
All talks will be in
AC201 in the
Concourse.
Move the cursor over a title for a short abstract.
Friday 10 May
10.00-10.45 Brita Nucinkis Bredon cohomological finiteness conditions for
generalisations of Thompson groups We define a family of groups
that generalises Thompson's groups T and G, and also
those of Higman, Stein and Brin. For groups in this family we describe
centralisers of finite subgroups and show, that for a given finite
subgroup Q, there are finitely many conjugacy classes of finite
subgroups isomorphic to Q. We use this to show that our groups
have a slightly weaker property, quasi-F∞, to
that of a group possessing a finite type model for the classifying
space for proper actions EG if and only if they admit
finite type models for the ordinary classifying space (joint work with
C. Martínez-Pérez and Francesco Matucci).
10.45-11.15
Coffee/tea
11.15-12.00
Daniel Groves
Recognizing 3-manifold groups using the word problem
Most decision problems for groups are unsolvable in full
generality. In order to probe further, we are interested in a
`local-to-global' question: Suppose that one can solve the word
problem. What properties can then be algorithmically recognized? I
will formulate the question precisely (this is somewhat subtle and
different interpretations of the question have different answers) and
discuss various properties which can (and can't) be recognized modulo
the word problem.
The main result is that whether or not a group is the fundamental
group of a closed 3-manifold is recognizable modulo the word
problem. This is joint work with Jason Manning and Henry Wilton.
12.15-13.00
Jérôme Los
Volume entropy for surface groups via dynamics
In this talk I will describe a construction based on an idea due to
Bowen and Series back in 1979... The construction is new and it
enables to obtain a very specific dynamical system on the boundary of
surface groups for a large class of presentations. These particular
dynamical systems are very special and reflect some properties of the
group. These groups are very well known but seen that way gives new
perspectives.
13.0-15.00
Lunch
15.00-15.45
Juan Gonzales-Meneses
Thurston meets Garside
There are two apparently unrelated ways to study braid groups:
Algebraically, using Garside normal forms obtained by endowing its
elements with a lattice structure, and geometrically, regarding braids
as mapping classes and applying Nielsen-Thurston theory. We will
present some results, joint with Volker Gebhardt and Bert Wiest,
showing some relations between these two approaches: we will see how
conjugations which simplify braids algebraically, also simlpify them
geometrically, in the case of periodic and reducible braids. We will
also present some work in progress with Marta Aguilera, aiming to show
that the same holds for pseudo-Anosov braids.
16.00-16.45
Martyn Quick
Generators and relations for Thompson's group V
Thompson's group V is a famous example of an infinite finitely
presented simple group that arises most naturally as particular
transformations of the Cantor set. I will describe this group, review
some well-known sets of generators and relations for it, and present
some new presentations that illustrate how V can be viewed
quite naturally as closely linked to the symmetric groups. The latter
is joint work with Collin Bleak.
17.0-17.45
Jean-Baptiste Gramain
Murnaghan-Nakayama Rules and Perfect Isometries
Perfect isometries are the shadow, at the level of characters, of
stronger equivalences between blocks of finite groups (such as derived
equivalences). In particular, one can give a weaker version of
Broué's Conjecture in terms of perfect isometries.
M. Enguehard proved in 1988 that any two p-blocks of symmetric
groups, which have the same p-weight, are perfectly
isometric. The main tool in his proof is given by the
Murnaghan-Nakayama Rule, which provides a recursive way of computing
character values for the symmetric groups. In this talk, I will
present generalisations of this result, as well as applications of
them, to groups that are not quite symmetric groups, but do have some
analogues of the Murnaghan-Nakayama Rule. This is the case, for
example, of the Schur extensions of the symmetric and alternating
groups, and of certain wreath products. This is joint work with
Olivier Brunat (Paris 7).
Saturday 11 May
10.00-10.45
Pascal Weil
On random subgroups of free groups
I will survey several notions of randomness for finitely generated
subgroups of free groups and finite group presentations, and the
asymptotic properties that arise under these notions. Classical
results in this field include Gromov-Ol'shanskii-Champetier's result
that a random finitely presented group is hyperbolic. The literature
has often focused on the "few-generator" model (where a fixed number
of generators for subgroups, a fixed number of relators for
presentation is considered), or on the density model (with an
exponential number of generators/relators). Recent results, obtained
with some or all of Bassino, Martino, Nicaud and Ventura, consider
intermediate situations, with a polynomial number of generators; or a
completely different distribution for subgroups, based on the number
of vertices in their Stallings graph.
10.45-11.15
Coffee/tea
11.15-12.00
Sean Cleary
Some metric properties of Houghton's groups
Houghton's groups are a family of subgroups of permutation groups
known for their cohomological properties. Here, I describe some
aspects of their geometry and metric properties including families of
self-quasi-isomtries. This is joint work with Jose Burillo, Armando
Martino and Claas Roever.
12.15-13.00
Emil Sköldberg
Multiplicative structures in (co)homology
I will begin by giving an introduction to the basics of multiplicative
structures in cohomology, in particular in group theory and
commutative algebra. Also, I will talk about products in homology, and
on resolutions, with mentions on classical results on their existence
or non-existence. Finally, I will mention my own recent work on
multiplicative structures of minimal free resolutions of edge ideals
in a polynomial algebra.
Travel
There are regular rail
connections from Dublin to Galway, and
bus
connections from all Irish cities and towns.
From Dublin airport there are also direct busses to Galway operated by
Citylink
and GoBus.
Galway Airport seems out
of operation, but please check again. There are flights to Shannon
from Birmingham, Edinburgh, Heathrow, London City and Manchester by Aer Lingus.
Directions to NUI Galway by road can be found
here
.
NUI Galway has a number of pay-and-display
parking places for visitors. Cars parked in other spaces on the NUI
Galway campus and not displaying a valid parking permit will be
clamped.
Accommodation
The following hotels and guest houses are convenient for the NUI Galway campus:
- The Westwood House Hotel,
091 521 442
- The House Hotel,
091-538 900
- Bologna B&B, 091-523792
- Aneesha B&B, 091-524250
- Ashgrove House B&B, 091-581291
- Villanova B&B, 091-524849
- Coolavalla B&B, 091-522415
- Rosgal B&B, 091- 524723
- De Sota B&B, 091-585064
Please contact Ireland West
for further information about accommodation near NUI Galway.
For further information, please keep an eye on this website which will
be updated regularly, or contact the organisers Javier Aramayona
and Claas Röver.
Groups in Galway 2013 is generously supported by
- The Millennium Research Fund, NUI Galway
- The Office of the Registrar and Deputy President, NUI Galway
- School of Mathematics, Statistics and Applied Mathematics, NUI Galway