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Left-orderability and three-manifolds

Special Events

Speaker: Tye Lidman, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton
Related Webpage: https://www.ias.edu/people/cos/users/19684
Location: 1147 MSB
Start time: Mon, Jan 4 2016, 1:10PM

A group is called left-orderable if it can be given a left-invariant total order. We will discuss the question of when the fundamental group of a three-manifold Y is left-orderable. Orderability is known to be related to certain topological aspects of Y, such as the surfaces which sit inside it. We will discuss a conjectural relationship between left-orderability and the solutions to a certain nonlinear PDE on Y.

A reception in honor of the speaker will be held after his talk.