Subgroups of SO(3,Q)

Seminar: 
Geometry & Topology
Event time: 
Tuesday, April 25, 2023 - 4:15pm
Location: 
LOM 206
Speaker: 
Nic Brody
Speaker affiliation: 
University of California Santa Cruz
Event description: 

The classification of finite subgroups of SO(3) is a classical problem in geometry. In this talk, we will welcome in the much larger class of rational rotation groups and see what sense can be made of such groups. Call a subgroup G of SO(3,Q) primary if it is discrete in some p-adic topology. These groups are essentially free groups, and we’ll consider them well-understood. We entertain the possibility that any subgroup of SO(3,Q) which is not abelian or primary might be forced to be arithmetic, meaning that it looks a lot like SO(3,A) for a subring A of Q. We prove some results supporting this conjecture, including some special cases of the conjecture and a rigidity result. This conjecture has many analogues in the broader study of discrete subgroups of Lie groups, and has many consequences in geometry and group theory.