Dear Topologists and Friends of Topology, Will Cavendish from Oxford University will be giving the seminar talk tomorrow (Thursday) at 3:30 in MSCS 514.

Title: Topological methods for engulfing subgroups

Abstract: Given a group $G$ and a subgroup $H$, $H$ is said to be engulfed in $G$ if $H$ can be distinguished from $G$ by looking at maps to finite groups, i.e. if there exists a homomorphism $\phi:G \to F$ where $F$ is finite and $\phi(H)\ne \phi(G)$. In this talk, we will discuss some of the topological applications of engulfing in the context of 3-manifold theory, and then demonstrate how engulfing can be understood in terms of the cohomology of interesting topological spaces called solenoids.