Mathematics Graduate Students Organization

Seminar:

Date: September 9

The idea of self-similarity is one of the most basic and fruitful ideas in mathematics. It has been an important notion in geometry and topology for many years. Recently, self-similarity started playing a role in algebra as well, first of all in group theory.

The study of self-similar groups started in 1980's as a source of groups with extraordinary properties. In the last 30 years it developed into a beautiful theory which now has connections to many areas in mathematics. After giving precise definitions we will focus on a prototypical example of a self-similar group and talk about its interesting properties.