Speaker: Yandi Wu (University of Wisconsin)
Title: A topologically rigid set of quotients of the Davis complex
Abstract: A class of topological spaces is topologically rigid if for any pair of spaces in the class, an isomorphism on the level of fundamental groups induces a homeomorphism. One famous example of a topologically rigid class is the set of simply connected 3-manifolds (Poincare’s conjecture). Lafont also proved a series of results about topological rigidity of hyperbolic piecewise manifolds, which have played a big role in my work. In this talk, we examine a set of K(G,1) spaces of certain right-angled Coxeter groups (RACGs), which is not a topologically rigid class. However, if we impose certain restrictions on the defining graphs of the RACGs, we can obtain an infinite topologically rigid subclass.