Previous Special Year Seminar

We give a brief introduction to random walks on groups with hyperbolic properties.

We prove that if a hyperbolic group $G$ acts cocompactly on a CAT(0) cube complexes and the cell stabilizers are quasiconvex and virtually special, then $G$ is virtually special. This generalizes Agol's Theorem (the case when the action is proper)...

Sageev associated to a codimension 1 subgroup $H$ of a group $G$ a cube complex on which $G$ acts by isometries, and proved this cube complex is always CAT(0). Haglund and Wise developed a theory of special cube complexes, whose fundamental groups...

The non-orientable genus (a.k.a crosscap number) of a knot is the smallest genus over all non-orientable surfaces spanned by the knot. In this talk, I’ll describe joint work with Christine Lee, in which we obtain two-sided linear bound of the...

We will discuss methods of decomposing knot and link complements into polyhedra. Using hyperbolic geometry, angled structures, and normal surface theory, we analyze geometric and topological properties of knots and links.

Given a trivalent graph embedded in 3-space, we associate to it an instanton homology group, which is a finite-dimensional $\mathbf{Z}/2$ vector space. The main result about the instanton homology is a non-vanishing theorem, proved using techniques...

Given a trivalent graph embedded in 3-space, we associate to it an instanton homology group, which is a finite-dimensional $\mathbf{Z}/2$ vector space. The main result about the instanton homology is a non-vanishing theorem, proved using techniques...

Given a variety $Y$ with a rectangular Lefschetz decomposition of its derived category, I will discuss an interesting relation between the derived categories of a cyclic cover of $Y$ and its branch divisor. As examples, I will describe the cases of...

Let $R$ be a regular semi-local domain, containing a field. Let $G$ be a reductive group scheme over $R$. We prove that a principal $G$-bundle over $R$ is trivial, if it is trivial over the fraction field of $R$. If the regular semi-local domain $R$...

I will try to tell the story of the projective line minus three points from the point of view of periods, and if time permits, discuss some open problems.