Colloquium: Asaf Hadari (UHM)

When:
September 13, 2019 @ 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
2019-09-13T15:30:00-10:00
2019-09-13T16:30:00-10:00
Where:
Keller 401

Speaker: Asaf Hadari (UHM)
Title: In search of a representation theory of mapping class groups.

Abstract:

Mapping class groups are nearly ubiquitous in low dimensional topology. They’ve been studied for over a century. Various results discovered during the past few decades it has become quite clear that there is much to gain by studying them via their linear representations.

Somewhat surprisingly, many such representations are known. Unfortunately, until recently there was almost no representation theory, that is – no underlying structure that allows you to say anything about the class of representations as a whole. It is precisely such an understanding that is necessary for studying mapping class groups.

In this talk I’ll talk about the major source of representations of mapping class groups, and talk about new results in their emerging representation theory.