Talk by Dr. Jenny Wilson (Dept. of Mathematics, Univ. of Michigan)

01/11/2021  Zoom Meeting  4:10-5:15pm

Abstract:  

 

This talk will give an introduction to the field of 'representation stability'. I will discuss how we can use representation theory to illuminate the structure of certain families of groups and topological spaces with actions of the symmetric groups S_n, focusing on configuration spaces of points in a surface as an illustrative example. The talk is aimed at a general math audience and will not assume familiarity with configuration spaces or specialized knowledge of topology or representation theory.