Speaker: Johanna Mangahas, University at Buffalo

Title: Applications of group actions on certain quasi-trees

Abstract: Mapping class groups of surfaces have a marvelous library of actions on interesting spaces, in keeping with their central place in geometric group theory. In this talk I will highlight applications of their actions on projection complexes (the title's "certain quasi-trees," which were defined by Bestvina, Bromberg, and Fujiwara), which is a special case of a more general picture. In particular I hope to motivate results and questions growing out of joint work with Matt Clay and Dan Margalit.