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Department of Mathematics,
University of California San Diego

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Food For Thought Seminar

Johanna Hennig

UCSD

Higher Dimensional Thompson Groups

Abstract:

The groups $F \leq T \leq V$ were defined by Richard Thompson in 1965 and used to construct finitely presented groups with unsolvable word problems. $T$ and $V$ were also the first examples of infinite, finitely presented simple groups. Since then, these groups have been studied extensively using a rich interplay of algebraic, topological, and dynamical approaches. I will discuss recent work regarding the higher dimensional analogues of Thompson groups, $nV$, including the fact that $mV$ is not isomorphic to $nV$ for $n \neq m$, and that for every $n$ the group $nV$ is finitely presented and simple. The only background required for this talk is basic group theory.

March 3, 2011

10:00 AM

AP&M 7321

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