Mathematical Sciences Colloquium Today

The department of mathematical sciences presents Andy Putman, Rice University, who will present “Small Generating Sets of the Torelli Group,” Thursday, Sept. 8, at 3:30 p.m. in SCEN 322.

The Torelli group is the subgroup of the mapping class group of a surface that acts trivially on the first homology group of the surface. It has many remarkable properties. The focus of this talk is a theorem of Dennis Johnson which asserts that if the genus of the surface is large, then the Torelli group is finitely generated. We'll explain why this result is surprising and then discuss a new theorem which shows that the Torelli group has a generating set that is "small."

The event is open to the public. For more information contact Yo'av Rieck, yoav@uark.edu.