Combinatorial Group Theory And Applications To Geometry

From the reviews: "... The book under review consists of two monographs on geometric aspects of group theory ... Together, these two articles form a wide-ranging survey of combinatorial group theory, with emphasis very much on the geometric roots of the subject. This will be a useful reference work for the expert, as well as providing an overview of the subject for the outsider or novice. Many different topics are described and explored, with the main results presented but not proved. This allows the interested reader to get the flavour of these topics without becoming bogged down in detail. Both articles give comprehensive bibliographies, so that it is possible to use this book as the starting point for a more detailed study of a particular topic of interest. ..." Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society, 1996

This volume assembles several research papers in all areas of geometric and combinatorial group theory originated in the recent conferences in Dortmund and Ottawa in 2007. It contains high quality refereed articles developing new aspects of these modern and active fields in mathematics. It is also appropriate to advanced students interested in recent results at a research level.

Applications of Group Theory to Combinatorics contains 11 survey papers from international experts in combinatorics, group theory and combinatorial topology. The contributions cover topics from quite a diverse spectrum, such as design theory, Belyi functions, group theory, transitive graphs, regular maps, and Hurwitz problems, and present the state

The papers in this volume are the result of a workshop held in January 1989 at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. Topics covered include decision problems, finitely presented simple groups, combinatorial geometry and homology, and automatic groups and related topics.

Basic work on two-dimensional homotopy theory dates back to K. Reidemeister and J. H. C. Whitehead. Much work in this area has been done since then, and this book considers the current state of knowledge in all the aspects of the subject. The editors start with introductory chapters on low-dimensional topology, covering both the geometric and algebraic sides of the subject, the latter including crossed modules, Reidemeister-Peiffer identities, and a concrete and modern discussion of Whitehead's algebraic classification of 2-dimensional homotopy types. Further chapters have been skilfully selected and woven together to form a coherent picture. The latest algebraic results and their applications to 3- and 4-dimensional manifolds are dealt with. The geometric nature of the subject is illustrated to the full by over 100 diagrams. Final chapters summarize and contribute to the present status of the conjectures of Zeeman, Whitehead, and Andrews-Curtis. No other book covers all these topics. Some of the material here has been used in courses, making this book valuable for anyone with an interest in two-dimensional homotopy theory, from graduate students to research workers.

Combinatorial group theory is a loosely defined subject, with close connections to topology and logic. With surprising frequency, problems in a wide variety of disciplines, including differential equations, automorphic functions and geometry, have been distilled into explicit questions about groups, typically of the following kind: Are the groups in a given class finite (e.g., the Burnside problem)? Finitely generated? Finitely presented? What are the conjugates of a given element in a given group? What are the subgroups of that group? Is there an algorithm for deciding for every pair of groups in a given class whether they are isomorphic or not? The objective of combinatorial group theory is the systematic development of algebraic techniques to settle such questions. In view of the scope of the subject and the extraordinary variety of groups involved, it is not surprising that no really general theory exists. These notes, bridging the very beginning of the theory to new results and developments, are devoted to a number of topics in combinatorial group theory and serve as an introduction to the subject on the graduate level.

This volume contains a collection of papers on the subject of the classification of finite simple groups.

From the reviews: "This book [...] defines the boundaries of the subject now called combinatorial group theory. [...] it is a considerable achievement to have concentrated a survey of the subject into 339 pages. [...] a valuable and welcome addition to the literature, containing many results not previously available in a book. It will undoubtedly become a standard reference." Mathematical Reviews