Geometric group theory is the study of the interplay between groups and the spaces they act on, and has its roots in the works of Henri Poincare, Felix Klein, J.H.C. Whitehead, and Max Dehn. Office Hours with a Geometric Group Theorist brings together leading experts who provide one-on-one instruction on key topics in this exciting and relatively new field of mathematics. It's like having office hours with your most trusted math professors. An essential primer for undergraduates making the leap to graduate work, the book begins with free groups--actions of free groups on trees, algorithmic questions about free groups, the ping-pong lemma, and automorphisms of free groups. It goes on to cover several large-scale geometric invariants of groups, including quasi-isometry groups, Dehn functions, Gromov hyperbolicity, and asymptotic dimension. It also delves into important examples of groups, such as Coxeter groups, Thompson's groups, right-angled Artin groups, lamplighter groups, mapping class groups, and braid groups. The tone is conversational throughout, and the instruction is driven by examples. Accessible to students who have taken a first course in abstract algebra, Office Hours with a Geometric Group Theorist also features numerous exercises and in-depth projects designed to engage readers and provide jumping-off points for research projects.

About the Author
Matt Clay is associate professor of mathematics at the University of Arkansas. Dan Margalit is professor of mathematics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is the coauthor of A Primer on Mapping Class Groups (Princeton).

Reviews
"One of Choice Reviews' Outstanding Academic Titles of 2018"
"In a book with this many authors, it might be expected that their individual contributions would vary significantly in terms of accessibility and readability, but in fact this turned out (presumably as a result of careful editing) not to be the case: the office hours are of uniformly high quality in both of these regards. Their informal, conversational tone should appeal to students (and also to non-specialist faculty who want to learn something about these topics)."---Mark Hunacek, Mathematical Gazette



Book Information
ISBN 9780691158662
Author Matt Clay
Format Paperback
Page Count 456
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press
Weight(grams) 482g