Mathematical Conversations

Is the Mapping Class Group Always the Biggest Group?

The mapping class group of a surface is a very important, but still mysterious group. Natural actions of the mapping class group appear on representation varieties of surface groups. In some cases, e.g. when this action preserves a metric, we know that no bigger group can act by isometries. But what happens if we look at actions that preserve not a metric, but only the natural symplectic structure on representation varieties? 

Date & Time

November 30, 2022 | 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Location

Birch Garden, Simons Hall

Affiliation

Heidelberg University; Member, School of Mathematics

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