Virginia Topology Conference 2016: Mapping class groups and low dimensional topology

资助的会议“2016年弗吉尼亚拓扑会议：映射类组和低维拓扑”将于2016年11月18日至11月20日在弗吉尼亚州夏洛茨维尔的弗吉尼亚大学举行。会议将汇集来自美国的主要研究人员和早期职业数学家，也有一些国际参与者。会议的目标是讨论代数、拓扑和几何界面的新发展。多样化的参与者将促进建立新的合作关系，并为早期职业数学家提供充足的专业发展机会。美国国家科学基金会为会议提供的资金将主要用于支付美国机构参与者的旅行费用和当地费用。组织者将优先资助年轻研究人员和代表性不足的群体。映射类群及其与低维拓扑的相互作用在数学中有着悠久的历史。近年来，映射类群论和低维拓扑学都取得了惊人的发展，尽管许多有趣的问题尚未得到解决。其中包括映射类群与4流形拓扑之间的确切关系，量子拓扑与双曲几何之间的联系。这次资助的会议将聚集群论和低维拓扑学不同分支领域的研究人员，通过映射类群的共同线索将他们联系在一起。特别是，在特征变异、几何群论、双曲几何、四流形拓扑和量子拓扑方面的研究人员将有机会在这些领域的界面上进行合作和讨论新的发展。所有这些领域都将在受邀的研究会谈中有所代表。会议的网址是：http://faculty.virginia.edu/Koberda/VTC2016.html

The funded conference "Virginia Topology Conference 2016: Mapping Class Groups and Low Dimensional Topology" will take place at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA, from November 18 until November 20, 2016. The conference will bring together leading researchers and early career mathematicians from the United States, with some international participation as well. The goal of the conference will be to discuss new developments at the interface of algebra, topology, and geometry. The diverse array of participants will foster the forging of new collaborative relationships, as well as provide ample opportunities for professional development for early career mathematicians. The NSF funds granted for the conference will primarily serve to defray the travel costs and local expenses of participants based at US institutions. The organizers will give priority in funding to young researchers and to underrepresented groups.Mapping class groups and their interactions with low dimensional topology have had a long history in mathematics. Recent years have seen spectacular developments in both mapping class group theory and in low dimensional topology, though many intriguing problems have yet to be resolved. Among these are the exact relationship between mapping class groups and the topology of 4-manifolds, and the connection between quantum topology and hyperbolic geometry. The funded conference will bring together researchers in diverse subfields of group theory and low dimensional topology, tied together by the common thread of mapping class groups. In particular, researchers in character varieties, geometric group theory, hyperbolic geometry, 4-manifold topology, and quantum topology will have the opportunity to collaborate and to discuss new developments at the interfaces of these fields. All of these fields will be represented among the invited research talks. A website for the conference can be found at: http://faculty.virginia.edu/Koberda/VTC2016.html