EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: The Topology of Representation Varieties
Speaker: Maxime Bergeron
Speaker Info: University of Chicago
Brief Description:
Special Note:
Abstract:

Let H be a finitely generated group, let G be a complex reductive algebraic group (e.g. a special linear group) and let K be a maximal compact subgroup of G (e.g. a special unitary group). I will discuss exceptional classes of groups H for which there is a deformation retraction of Hom(H,G) onto Hom(H,K), thereby allowing one to obtain otherwise inaccessible topological invariants of these representation spaces.