Graphs, surfaces, and cube complexes
12 July 2018
Abstract: A surface automorphism is an orientation-preserving self-homeomorphism of a compact orientable surface. A virtual property for a surface automorphism refers to a property which holds up to lifting to some finite covering space. It has been conjectured by C. T. McMullen that any surface automorphism of positive mapping-class entropy possesses a virtual homological eigenvalue which lies outside the unit circle of the complex plane. In this talk, I will review some background and outline a proof of the conjecture.