23 February 2012, 6:30pm
Solving the Word Problem for Reflection Groups, David Howden
Abstract
Reflections and symmetry are fundamental concepts underpinning many different branches of mathematics. They provide analogies between different disciplines, aiding our understanding of how different theories and methods link together.
We will give a gentle introduction to groups and in particular Coxeter groups (groups generated by reflections), and show how some of these groups can be visualised geometrically (there will be pretty pictures).
We then go on to talk about the word problem for general groups (the process of trying to determine if two arbitrary objects in a group are actually the same) and show that we can construct machines to solve this problem for Coxeter groups using the tools and intuition provided by the associated geometry.
Venue: Room B3.O2, Zeeman Building, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL
No charge is made to attend meetings and non-members are welcome.
