The action on a tree associated to an ideal point of the character variety
- Date: 11/30/2006
Lecturer(s):
Melissa Macasieb (University of British Columbia)
Location:
University of British Columbia
Topic:
Let G be the fundamental group of a compact, orientable, irreducible
3-manifold M. I will discuss the correspondence between ideal points of
a curve in the character variety X(G) and actions of G on a tree
(following Culler-Shalen). This is a particular case of Bass-Serre
theory concerning subgroups of SL_2(K), where K is a local field. I
will spend some time discussing the tree for SL_2(K) and its relation
to graphs of groups, and time permitting, how this relates to the
existence of incompressible surfaces in M.
Other Information:
Algebraic Topology Seminar 2006
Sponsor:
