
Title: Embedding Obstructions and Actions on Manifolds
Speaker: Kevin Schreve (University of Michigan)
Abstract: In 1933, van Kampen developed a homological obstruction to embedding simplicial complexes into Euclidean space. Bestvina, Kapovich and Kleiner used this obstruction to give lower bounds on the dimension of a contractible manifold that a group can act on properly discontinuously. I will discuss some examples of groups where this obstructor theory has proven successful, including right-angled Artin groups and lattices in Euclidean buildings. This is based on joint work with Grigori Avramidi, Michael Davis, and Boris Okun.
Seminar URL: https://research.math.osu.edu/topology/