Speaker: S.K. Roushon
Date: March 18, 2010
Affiliation: TIFR

Abstract: The Isomorphism conjecture of Farrell and Jones asserts that the K-theoretic (reduced projective class groups, algebraic K-groups) and the L-theoretic obstruction groups of a discrete group can be computed in terms of the virtually cyclic subgroups of the group. A `virtually cyclic' group, by definition, contains a cyclic subgroup of finite index. The Isomorphism Conjecture implies several fundamental conjectures, for example the vanishing of the Whitehead group for torsion free discrete groups, Borel conjecture, Novikov conjecture, etc. <br> We will study the conjecture for groups acting on trees and see under what conditions on the vertex stabilizers the conjecture can be deduced for the group.