Metric Spaces of Non-Positive Curvature

Rice University, Dept of Mathematics

Working Seminar – Spring 2006

Course information

Instructor: Karoline one week, Casey the next

Faculty Advisor: Bob Hardt.

Text: Metric Spaces of Non-Positive Curvature by Bridson and Haefliger (Springer-Verlag, 1999)

Course goal: To learn the standard analytic tools used in geometric group theory

Meetings: Tuesday 10am, HB48

Contact: pershell@math.rice.edu

Upcoming Meeting

University of Arkansas Spring Lecture Series, “Geometric Group Theory”, featuring talks by Martin Bridson. http://www.uark.edu/depts/mathinfo/activities/SpringLecture.html

Course Meeting Schedule

Date	Material	Section
Thurs, Jan 19	Basic Concepts	I.1
Tue, Jan 24	Model Spaces	I.2
Tue, Jan 31	Length Spaces	I.3
Tue, Feb 7	Normed Spaces and Constructions	I.4 – I.5
Tue, Feb 14	Geometry of Model Spaces	I.6
Tue, Feb 21	M_k – Polyhedral Complexes	I.7
Tue, Feb 28	Group Actions and Quasi-Isometries	I.8
Tue, Mar 7	Selected Portions of Part II	Part II
Tue, Mar 14	Selected Portions of Part II	Part II
Tue, Mar 21	Selected Portions of Part II	Part II
Tue, Mar 28	Delta-Hyperbolic Spaces	III.H.1 – III.H.3
Tue, Apr 4	Hyperbolic Groups	III.G.1 – III.G.3
Tue, Apr 11	Cocompact Gps of Isometries	III.G.5
Tue, Apr 18	Amalgamating Groups of Isometries	III.G.6
Tue, Apr 25	Finite-Sheeted Coverings	III.G.7