# Seminars

Speakers:
Francesco Matucci
Date: Friday, 5 January, 2018
Abstract:

For a finitely generated group, the Cayley graph is a metric space encoding the structure of the group. Gromov introduced the notion of a $\delta$-hyperbolic group, a finitely generated group with a negatively curved Cayley graph, that is, for any triangle in the graph with geodesic sides, each side is contained in the $\delta$-neighborhood of the union of the two other sides. Hyperbolic groups are "prevalent" among finitely generated groups.

Speakers:
Emanuele Rodaro
Date: Friday, 15 December, 2017
Abstract:

We consider algorithmic problems for automaton semigroups and automaton groups of the freeness and finiteness kind. We first show that checking whether an automaton group has empty set of positive relations is undecidable. Moreover we prove that the emptyness of the set of positive relations is equivalent to the dynamical property of having all the orbital graphs centred at the non-singular points which are acyclic. We also settle the problem of checking the freeness for the semigroup defined by an automaton group by proving that such problem is undecidable.

Speakers:
Mikhail Volkov
Date: Wednesday, 6 December, 2017
Abstract:

Recall that a finite semigroup S is said to be inherently nonfinitely based (INFB) if S does not belong to any finitely based locally finite variety. In 1987, Mark Sapir proved that the 6-element Brandt monoid B_2^1 is INFB; later he gave an algorithmically efficient description of INFB semigroups. Sapir's description implies, in particular, that no finite J-trivial semigroup is INFB.

Speakers:
Nora Szakacs
Date: Friday, 24 November, 2017
Abstract:

In the talk, we study immersions between cell complexes using inverse monoids. By an immersion f : D -> C between cell complexes, we mean a continous map which is a local homeomorphism onto its image, and we further suppose that commutes with the characteristic maps of the cell complexes. We describe immersions between finite-dimensional connected Delta-complexes by replacing the fundamental group of the base space by an appropriate inverse monoid.

Speakers:
Ana Cristina Ferreira
Date: Friday, 17 November, 2017
Abstract:

In this talk, we will review the famous Hopf problem, which dates back to 1948, of whether there is a complex structure on the round 6-sphere. Although some attempted answers have been advanced, both in the negative and in the positive directions, this problem is still open. We will review some of the work and partial results that appear in the literature and take a closer look at almost complex structures compatible with the metrics of constant sectional curvature.

Speakers:
Alexander Zakharov
Date: Friday, 3 November, 2017
Abstract:

Two groups are called commensurable if they have isomorphic subgroups of finite index. In the first part of the talk I will discuss our results with Montse Casals-Ruiz and Ilya Kazachkov on the commensurability classification of right-angled Artin groups (RAAGs) defined by trees. In the second part of the talk I will mention some algorithmic properties of RAAGs and discuss our results with Jordi Delgado and Enric Ventura on the subgroup intersection problem for Droms RAAGs.

Speakers:
Tere Seara
Date: Friday, 20 October, 2017
Abstract:

The so-called Hopf-zero singularity consists in a vector field in $R^3$ having the origin as a critical point, with a zero eigenvalue and a pair of conjugate purely imaginary eigenvalues.

Speakers:
Dan Avritzer
Date: Friday, 27 October, 2017
Abstract:

Let G be the Grassmannian of lines in P3 embedded in P5 as the Plücker quadric Q. The intersection of Q with a second hypersurface of degree d is what is called a complex of lines of degree d. When we consider the intersection of Q with a second quadratic hypersurface in P5, P, we have a quadratic complex. Let X = Q ∩ P be a quadratic complex that, in this talk, we assume to be non-singular, meaning X is non-singular.

Speakers:
Miguel Couto
Date: Friday, 24 November, 2017
Abstract:

The subject of this talk will be Hopf algebras and their dual theory. We will mostly focus on a particular class of Hopf algebras: noetherian Hopf algebras that are finitely-generated modules over some commutative normal Hopf subalgebra. Some properties and examples of these Hopf algebras will be mentioned. Furthermore, we will see some results on the dual of this class of Hopf algebras, some of its properties, decompositions e maybe some interesting Hopf subalgebras.

Speakers:
Montse Casals
Date: Friday, 20 October, 2017
Abstract:

Right-angled Artin groups arise naturally in different branches of mathematics and computer science. In this talk we will introduce the class of right-angled Artin groups and discuss when they are algebraically, geometrically and logically similar, or, more formally, when they are commensurable, quasi-isometric and universally equivalent.