Autumn Kent is a Professor of Mathematics and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Wisonsin-Madison. Her primary research area is in low-dimensional topology and knot theory; the study of spaces of dimensions 1, 2, 3, and 4. She was elected a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2024.
Schedule
11:15-12:15: Introductory Talk (Lind Hall 325)
12:30-1:30: Lunch
1:30-2:30: Tour with UMinn Graduate Students
2:30-3:30: Colloquium Talk (Vincent Hall 16)
3:30-4:00: Tea
Northfield Transportation
Transportation will be available between Northfield and Minneapolis in the form of van(s). If you would like to ride in one of the vans, please use this form to sign up. Registration is not necessary, but in the case that there are more people than space we will prioritize those who have registered.
Abstracts
Introductory Talk: Asteroids and the multiverse of doughnuts
Abstract: In Atari’s Asteroids, you fly a spaceship that destroys asteroids with a ray gun. When you fly off the top of your TV, you reappear from the bottom. When you fly off the right, you reappear from the left. The top of TV is “glued’” to the bottom, making a cylinder, and the left end of the cylinder is “glued” to the right end, making a doughnut. The Asteroids universe is a doughnut. TVs used to have 4:3 aspect ratios, and now they’re usually 16:9. We can play Asteroids on both. Both universes are doughnuts, but they’re different shapes. If we took the ship captain out of her universe, and marooned her in a new one, would she be able to tell? Could different TVs give her the same universe? Are there directions she can fly that take her to every point in her universe? These are basic versions of questions that mathematicians study: What are the possible shapes of a given object? Can we tell two objects apart by studying their geometry from within, as in our marooned captain’s dilemma? We’ll go on a trip through this multiverse of doughnuts, and see what we find.
Livestreaming: TBC
Colloquium Talk: Atoroidal surface bundles
Abstract: I will discuss recent work with C. Leininger in which we produce purely pseudo-Anosov surface subgroups of mapping class groups, obtaining the first compact atoroidal surface bundles over surfaces. We do this by constructing a type-preserving representation of the figure eight knot group into the mapping class group of the thrice-punctured sphere.
Livestreaming: Link here, Meeting ID: 945 0659 7067, Passcode: VinH16