The Boundary Multiplicity of CAT(0) Groups

Speaker(s)

Frederick Ancel

Affiliation

University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee

Date

Nov. 5, 2008, 12:15 p.m.

Room

room 5850

Seminar

Seminar Topology

---

Every hyperbolic (or negatively curved) group has a unique visual boundary. However, there are CAT(0) (or non-positively curved) groups that admit infinitely many non-homeomorphic boundaries. (The first example is due to C. Croke and B. Kleiner.) A previously unpublished proof (due to Ancel and J. Wilson) that this phenomenon occurs will be sketched. Other possible equivalence relations among the visual boundaries of a CAT(0) group will also be discussed; including equivariant homeomorphism and cell-like equivalence. The current state of knowledge about these relations will be described.

---