EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Point-pushing and Nielsen realization
Speaker: Bena Tshishiku
Speaker Info: University of Chicago
Brief Description:
Special Note:
Abstract:

Let M be a manifold with mapping class group Mod(M). Any subgroup G < Mod(M) can be represented by a collection of diffeomorphisms that form a group up to isotopy. The Nielsen realization problem asks whether or not G can be represented as an honest subgroup of diffeomorphisms. We will discuss a special case of this problem when M is a locally symmetric manifold and G \simeq pi_1(M) is the "point-pushing" subgroup. This generalizes work of Bestvina-Church-Souto.