2019 Arches Topology Conference

West Chester University Of Pennsylvania, West Chester PA

Investigators

Abstract

This NSF award provides support for the second Arches Topology Conference, to be held in Springdale, UT in April 2019. In the past two decades, ideas from geometric group theory and topological group theory have motivated many of the significant advances in the study of algebraic topology of spaces with nontrivial local structure. Additionally, topological spaces associated with the coarse geometry of a group often have nontrivial local algebraic topology. This conference will bring together international and domestic experts in algebraic topology and geometric group theory to share the state of the art knowledge on the interactions between these two fields. This award will support travel expenses for graduate students and early career researchers. The purpose of the 2019 conference is to provide an intimate setting for leading experts and junior mathematicians to share their research and develop new collaborations. Students will be introduced to the themes of the conference and techniques used in research and will have opportunities to interact with experienced mathematicians. The scientific focus of the 2019 conference will be the use of methods from covering space theory to study fundamental groups of spaces without a universal cover. To support this focus, topics featured at the 2019 conference will include: algebraic topology of Peano continua, boundaries of groups and the fundamental group at infinity, CAT(0) groups and associated spaces, and topological groups and automatic continuity. Approximately 20 speakers will present and each day will include time for collaboration on new research. The conference website is at: https://math.byu.edu/~curtkent/arches/2019.html This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.