Abstracts

Mini course

E. Militon: Action of the group of homeomorphisms of a surface on its fine curve graph (parts 1, 2, 3)

The fine curve graph of a surface S is a Gromov hyperbolic graph, introduced by Jonathan Bowden, Sebastian Hensel and Richard Webb, on which the group of homeomorphisms of S acts faithfully by isometries. In this mini-course, I will first give an overview of the current results about this graph. Then, I will give a more in-depth explanation of the links between the dynamics of a homeomorphism of a surface and the isometry type of its action on the fine curve graph.

Research Talks

Collin Bleak (St Andrews)

Lei Chen (Maryland)

Mapping class groups of circle bundles over a surface

In this talk, we study the algebraic structure of mapping class group Mod(M) of 3-manifolds M that fiber as a circle bundle over a surface. We prove an exact sequence, relate this to the Birman exact sequence, and determine when this sequence splits. We will also discuss the Nielsen realization problem for such manifolds and give a partial answer. This is joint work with Bena Tshishiku and Alina Beaini.

Thomas Koberda (Virginia)

André Nies (Auckland)

Javier de la Nuez-Gonzalez (KIAS)

Yash Lodha (Hawaii)*