MATH 6610: Geometric Topology (Spring 2011)

Instructor: Karen Vogtmann

The course will focus on geometric structures on spaces associated with graphs and surfaces, with applications to low-dimensional topology, mapping-class groups and automorphisms of free groups. Specific topics will include an introduction to the geometry of surfaces, Teichmüller space and the curve complex, and an introduction to the geometry of Outer space. Students should have completed the basic graduate course in algebra and one semester of algebraic topology.