Department of Mathematics

Speaker: Wolfgang Metzler
Title: The Whitehead Asphericity Problem and the Andrews-Curtis Conjecture
Affiliation: J. W. Goethe Universität Frankfurt
Date: Friday, April 13, 2018
Place and Time: Room 101, Love Building, 3:35-4:30 pm
Refreshments: Room 204, Love Building, 3:00 pm

Abstract. The talk gives a first introduction into two guiding problems of the homotopy type of two-dimensional complexes, one posed by J.H.C. Whitehead, the other one related to former FSU mathematics professor Jim Andrews. These problems are dependent on each other. We will introduce the main algebraic tool used in geometric topology, which is presentations of groups, and describe the contents of two research monographs on Two-Dimensional Homotopy and Combinatorial Group Theory (the first published in 1993, the second in 2018) with a demonstration and documentation of the cooperation of their authors, which is based on specific workshop-style meetings from school level to research.