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GT Reading Seminar 2012-13

Word Processing in Groups

Organiser: Mark Bell

This reading seminar will be based on "Word Processing in Groups" by David Epstein, J. Cannon, D. Holt, S. Levy, M. Paterson and W. Thurston. In term 2 the seminar will take place between 12noon and 1pm on Thursdays in the Mathematics Institute. It will start 31st January (Week 4) and all are welcome to attend. See the schedule below for further details of topics.

We aim to study automatic groups: finitely generated groups with several finite-state automata that can be used to tell if a word in the generators is in a "canonical form" or if two canonical words differ by a generator. These groups are interesting as these automata provide a solution to the word problem.

We will try to give the general definitions required in each of the topics. It will be helpful to have an idea of group presentations and hyperbolicity. Common examples may include the braid groups and the triangle groups. Baumslag's review of the book [pdf] may also be helpful. Feel free to contact me if you would like more information or to be added to the mailing list.

Schedule

Term 2:
Week Date Speaker Topic Pages Room
4 31/01 Saul Schleimer Regular languages 4-18 MS.B3.02
5 07/02 Saul Schleimer Regular languages II 4-18 MS.B3.02
6 14/02 Francesca Iezzi Automatic groups & the word problem 45-51 MS.B3.02
7 21/02 Mark Bell Finding automatic structures 116-133 MS.B3.02
8 28/02 Tom Collyer Braid groups & the conjugacy problem 190-204 MS.B3.02
9 07/03 Tom Collyer Braid groups & the conjugacy problem II 190-204 MS.B3.02
10 14/03 Lars Louder Cayley graphs & isoperimetric inequalities 33-44 MS.B3.02
11 21/03 Richard Webb 3-manifold groups 273-281,76-80 MS.B1.01


Term 3:

Week Date Speaker Topic Pages Room
2 02/05 Richard Webb 3-manifold groups II 273-281,76-80 MS.B3.02
4 16/05 Mark Bell Non-automatic groups 161-171 MS.B3.03
6 30/05 Saul Schleimer Regular languages III 21-26 MS.B3.03


See here for information about other Geometry and Topology activities at Warwick.