Abstract
The protagonists of the talk are (Gromov-)hyperbolicity and mapping class groups, both of which I will introduce during the talk. Hyperbolicity is a central notion in geometric group theory which captures the large-scale geometry of negatively curved manifolds, while mapping class groups are ubiquitous in low-dimensional topology, appearing for example when one parametrises various constructions of 3-manifolds. Mapping class groups are not hyperbolic, but there are ways to encode and understand their non-hyperbolicity. I will illustrate this, and then I will discuss constructions of quotients of mapping class groups that, among other things, connect various open questions about hyperbolic groups and mapping class groups.
Streaming on the youtube channel of the Department: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfMLkaFzJYx6JoMxtGvvqJw Streaming on google meet: meet.google.com/odp-rdfe-rcs