Schedule

Here is a tentative schedule.

© Bakul Sathaye
  • All the minicourses and plenary talks will be held in the Botanicum lecture hall SG3
  • Lightning talks will be held in the Botanicum (SG3) and the Schloss (S2).
  • The Panel Sessions will take place in the Youth Hostel
  • Poster Session will take place in Mathematics Münster on the second floor of the Seminarraumzentrum at  Orléans-Ring 12.
  • Discussion sessions will be held in both the Botanicum (SG3) and in the Faculty of Protestant Theology.

 

You can download a detailed program and more information here.

Research statements of all participants can be found here.

Minicourses

Notes of Minicourse lectures and Plenary talks taken by participants can be found here.

  • Federica Fanoni

    Big mapping class groups
    I will introduce infinite-type surfaces and their mapping class groups (called big mapping class groups) and describe some of their basic properties. I will then talk about the classical Nielsen-Thurston classification for surfaces of finite type and discuss the issues that we face if we try to extend it to infinite-type surfaces. I will talk about joint work with Mladen Bestvina and Jing Tao about classifying certain mapping classes with good properties.

  • Mahan Mj

    Cannon-Thurston Maps
    We shall start by motivating the relevance of Cannon-Thurston maps from two points of view: geometric group theory and 3-dimensional hyperbolic geometry. We shall then furnish a proof of the existence of Cannon-Thurston maps for hyperbolic normal subgroups and give a description of point pre-images in terms of laminations. Depending on time available, we shall indicate some applications including the following:
    a) Scott-Swarup type theorems proving quasiconvexity of subgroups of distorted subgroups
    b) Cubulability of some hyperbolic surface-by-free groups

  • Andreas Thom

    Sofic groups, almost homomorphism and stability
    In this course I will give an introduction to sofic groups, including examples, applications and open questions. An important role is played by the notions of almost homomorphism and stability.

  • Genevieve Walsh

    Boundaries of hyperbolic and relatively hyperbolic groups
    This mini course will explore the many useful, interesting, and beautiful properties of boundaries of hyperbolic and relatively hyperbolic groups.

    We will start with the definition of a Gromov boundary of a hyperbolic group and the action of a group on its boundary. We will give some idea why this boundary is a QI invariant and give many examples of the interesting boundaries that can arise. In particular, we will see some boundaries of hyperbolic right-angled Coxeter groups.

    Next, we will discuss the metric on the Gromov boundary and some group-theoretical properties that one can see from the boundary. Lastly, we will discuss relatively hyperbolic groups and their boundaries and some relations to Gromov boundaries. Throughout, there will be many examples and applications

 

Plenary Talks

  • Michelle Chu

    Arithmetic hyperbolic manifolds and their finite covers
    Arithmetic hyperbolic manifolds are constructed as quotients of hyperbolic space by subgroups of isometries commensurable with integer points in algebraic groups. In this talk, I will introduce arithmetic methods to construct hyperbolic manifolds and describe how the arithmeticity helps us understand the geometry and topology of these manifolds and their finite covers. Throughout the talk, I will mention recent results as well as interesting open questions. 

  • Sam Hughes

    Distinguishing free-by-cyclic groups by their finite quotient groups
    One way to try to distinguish two groups up to isomorphism is to enumerate their finite quotients.  In this talk we will investigate the question of which free-by-cyclic groups can be distinguished from each other by their sets of finite quotients.  We will pay particular attention to the case where the defining automorphism is irreducible and atoroidal.  Based on ongoing joint work with Monika Kudlinska.

  • Annette Karrer

    From Stallings' Theorem to connected components of Morse boundaries of graph of groups
    Every finitely generated group G has an associated topological space, called a Morse boundary. It was introduced by a combination of Cordes and Charney--Sultan and captures the hyperbolic-like behavior of G at infinity.

    In this talk, I will first explain Stallings' theorem-- a fundamental theorem in geometric group theory. Afterward, I will explain an analogous statement for Gromov boundaries of  Gromov-hyperbolic groups. As Morse boundaries generalize Gromov boundaries, this raises the question whether it is possible to formulate an analog for Morse boundaries.  Motivated by this question, we will study connected components of Morse boundaries of graph of groups. We will focus on the case where the edge groups are undistorted and do not contribute to the Morse boundary of the ambient group. Results presented are joint with Elia Fioravanti.

  • Rylee Lyman

    Groups acting on trees and their deformations
    Many groups interesting to geometric group theorists act on trees. For a few examples, free groups, surface groups, many three-manifold groups, Baumslag--Solitar groups, and groups with infinitely many ends or a nontrivial JSJ decomposition. One goal of this talk is to remind you of or introduce you to Bass and Serre's structure theory for groups acting on trees. Here is the other. When a group acts on a tree, it typically acts on many trees in many ways. Work of Culler–Vogtmann, Culler–Morgan, Forester, Clay and Guirardel–Levitt organizes these tree actions into 'deformation spaces​.' I would like to introduce you to deformation spaces of tree actions and how to begin to think about them. I will attempt to state at least one open problem and at least one theorem of mine.

  • Jean-Pierre Mutanguha

    Canonical forms for free group automorphisms
    The Nielsen–Thurston theory of surface homeomorphisms can be thought of as a surface analogue to the Jordan canonical form. I will discuss my progress in developing a similar canonical form for free group automorphisms. (Un)Fortunately, free group automorphisms can have arbitrarily complicated behaviour. This is a significant barrier to translating arguments that worked for surfaces into the free group setting; nevertheless, the overall ideas/strategies do translate!

  • Stephan Stadler

    CAT(0) spaces of higher rank
    A Hadamard manifold – or more generally a CAT(0) space – is said to have higher rank if every geodesic line lies in a flat plane. If a higher rank Hadamard manifold admits finite volume quotients, then it has to be a symmetric space or split as a  direct product. This is the content of Ballmann’s celebrated Rank Rigidity Theorem,  proved in the 80s. It has been conjectured by Ballmann that his theorem generalizes  to the synthetic setting of CAT(0) spaces. In the talk I will discuss Ballmann’s  conjecture and report on recent progress.

  • Ignacio Vergara

    Uniformly Lipschitz affine actions on subspaces of L1
    I will present a general criterion that ensures the existence of a uniformly Lipschitz affine action of a countable group on a subspace of an L1 space. This sufficient condition arises in several different contexts, which allows one to construct such actions for various classes of groups, including hyperbolic groups, mapping class groups, and acylindrically hyperbolic groups. For the first two classes these actions are proper, and for the latter they have unbounded orbits.

Panels

There will be two panels during the conference - one addressing professional matters and the other addressing equity and inclusion in our community.

The Jobs Panel will address the professional aspects of mathematics. These can include but are not limited to: finding employment post-PhD, developing a research program, developing collaborations, work-life balance, two-body problems, balancing family + professional obligations, imposter syndrome.

The DEI Panel will address questions of justice and equity in mathematical sciences and society in general. For example, discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or age, the challenges people face in different geographical locations or because of belonging to particular under-represented groups; how they overcome them, and the success and failures they have experienced.

In both cases we aim to provide a safe environment for participants to raise and discuss whatever issues they would like to.

Jobs Panel

DEI Panel