EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Geometry and Rigidity for the Baumslag-Solitar Groups
Speaker: Professor Benson Farb
Speaker Info: University of Chicago
Brief Description:
Special Note:
Abstract:

A major problem in geometric group theory has been to find a version of Gromov's polynomial growth theorem to solvable groups. In this talk I'll describe joint work with Lee Mosher which gives the first results in this direction. I'll concentrate on a simple yet fundamental example: the groups

BS(1,n)={a,b: aba^{-1}=b^n}

Though simply defined, these groups give rise to surprisingly rich structure. Our discussion will include ideas in hyperbolic geometry, ``boundary theory'' for groups, coarse algebraic topology, geometry of Cantor sets, quasisimilarities and affine maps of the real line, and topological dynamics on the boundary of BS(1,n).