Seminar June 29th

Monday, June 29th, 13:00, CRM Small Room

Speaker: Martin Kassabov, Cornell University

Title: Subspace arrangements and property T

Abstract: I will mainly talk about (my viewpoint at) a method for proving property T started by Dymara and Januszkiewicz. Their original motivation came from groups action on dimensional building, but the refined idea does not used anything more angles between subspaces in an finite dimensional Euclidean space. Parts of the talk are based on a work of M. Ershov and A. Jaikin.

Seminar June 3rd

We will have a double session of the seminar at the same time as the Hyperbolic Groups course:


Wednesday June 3rd, Room 005, FME, Campus Sud UPC


First Talk, 11:00

Speaker: José Manuel Higes López, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Title: The coarse classification of countable abelian groups

Abstract: We will show the classification of countable abelian groups up to coarse equivalence. As an application we will use this result to detect which groups are coarsely equivalent to countable abelian groups. Joint with T. Banakh, I. Zarichnyi.



Second talk, 12:00

Speaker: Lars Louder, University of Michigan

Title: Graphs of subgroups of free groups

Abstract: We will develop, using Stallings' folding, graphs of groups, and a process called "blowing up," a simple topological model for representing graphs of subgroups of free groups. Applications to be discussed include simple proofs of some old results of combinatorial group theory. Generalizations of the technique and of these seemingly simple ideas to limit groups are important in the dimension theory for algebraic varieties defined over the free group.

Course on Hyperbolic Groups, June 2nd to 4th

As an event for the graduate class "Seminar on Group Theory", there will be a three-day minicourse.

Tuesday June 2nd to Thursday June 4th, 15.00 to 18:00, Room 005, FME, UPC Campus Sud

Speaker: Oleg Bogopolski, Universität Düsseldorf

Title: Hyperbolic groups

Seminar May 25th

Monday, May 25th, 13:00, CRM Small Room

Speaker: Lluís Bacardit (UAB)

Title: A generalization of theorem of Birman and Hilden

Abstract: A Theorem of Birman and Hilden says that the standard representation of the braid group by automorphisms of a free group $F_n$ remains faithful after passing to a free product of cyclic groups $C_k^{*n}$. If we take a finite index subgroup of $C_k^{*n}$ invariant by the action of the braid group, the action also is faithful. These two facts allow us to embed braid group in mapping class group of genus greater than 0. We will give a generalization of the Birman Hilden theorem to orientable surface with one boundary component and show some inclusion of mapping class groups in mapping class groups of greater genus.

Seminar May 18th

Monday, May 18th, 13:00, CRM Small Room

Speaker: Yago Antolín (UAB)

Title: Grupos de dimensión asintótica 1.

Abstract: Veremos ejemplos de grupos de dimensión asintótica 0,1 y 2. Caracterizaremos algebraicamente los grupos finitamente presentados de dimensión asintótica menor o igual que 1. El juego del Hex.

Seminar May 11th

Monday, May 11th, 13:00, CRM Small Room

Speaker: Arye Juhasz (Technion, Israel Institute of Technology)

Title: Solution of the Membership Problem for Magnus subsemigroups in certain one-relator groups.

Abstract: Let G be a one-relator group given by a finite presentation . A subgroup of G generated by a proper subset of X is called a Magnus subgroup of G, after W.Magnus, who introduced them to classical Combinatorial Group Theory. They are important building blocks of the theory of one-relator groups. Two of their main properties are that they are free and they have solvable Membership Problem. (The Membership Problem ask for an algorithm to decide whether a given element of the group belongs to a given subgroup).

Quite recently it became clear that the Word Problem for some one-relator algebraic structures which are more complicated than groups can be reduced to the Membership Problem for certain subsemigroups of one-relator groups.

Unfortunately, the existing algebraic and geometrical methods applied to subgroups do not work for subsemigroups. In this talk, using combinatorial methods, we consider the Membership Problem and the Freeness Problem for Magnus subsemigroups of one-relator groups with a small-cancellation condition. (These are subsemigroups of G generated by proper subsets of X union X-1). The main ingredients are van Kampen diagrams and word combinatorics.

Fourth Barcelona Weekend in Group Theory, April 24th and 25th

The program of the Fourth Barcelona Weekend in Group Theory is:

Friday April 24th, Auditori Centre de Recerca Matemàtica

• 15:00 Gilbert Levitt (Université de Caen, France)
  From Baumslag-Solitar groups to companion matrices.


• 16:15 Claas Röver (National University of Ireland, Galway)
  Groups with Context-Free Conjugacy Problem.

• 17:30 Armando Martino (University of Southampton, England)
  Isometries of Outer Space.

Saturday April 25th, FME Aula 102, Edifici U, UPC Campus Sud

• 10:00 Oleg Bogopolski (Universität Düsseldorf, Germany)
  On the fundamental and the first singular homology groups of the Hawaiian Earrings and of Griffiths' space.

• 11:15 Adolfo Ballester Bolinches (Universitat de València, Spain)
  On abnormal maximal subgroups of finite groups.


• 12:30 Goulnara Arzhantseva (Université of Genéve, Switzerland)
  Geometric small cancellation conditions with applications.