45 KAM Mathematical Colloquium

Prof. BENO ECKMANN

ETH Curych

4-MANIFOLDS AND GROUPS-SOME ASPECTS OF A PARTNERSHIP

April 23, 2002 Lecture Room K1, Charles University, Sokolovska 83, Praha 8 16:00 PM

Abstract

It is known for some time that closed 4-manifolds provide, via the fundamental group and the Euler characteristic, interesting invariants for finitely presented groups. In this survey I describe these and more refined invariants and mention some of their significance both for the manifolds and the groups. The invariants are not easily computed but some information is obtained using modern tools.