Self-intersections of curves and the lower central series of a surface group

Seminar: 
Geometry & Topology
Event time: 
Monday, March 1, 2010 - 11:30am to Sunday, February 28, 2010 - 7:00pm
Location: 
431 DL
Speaker: 
Justin Malestein
Speaker affiliation: 
Temple University
Event description: 

In this talk, we relate topological aspects of a curve on
a surface to its algebraic propertries. In particular, we will give various
estimates of the minimal number of self-intersections of a nontrivial element
of the kth term of the lower central series and derived series of the fundamental
group of a surface. Joint work with Andrew Putman.