Department of Mathematics - Master Calendar

The fundamental group is one of the most powerful invariants to distinguish closed three-manifolds, and the existence of non-trivial homomorphisms pi_1(M) --> SU(2) is a great way of measuring the non-triviality of a three-manifold M. It is known that if an integer homology 3-sphere is either Seifert fibered or toroidal, then irreducible representations do exist. In contrast, the existence of SU(2)-representations for hyperbolic homology spheres has not been completely established. With this as motivation, I will talk about partial progress made in the case of hyperbolic homology spheres realized as branched covers. This is joint work with Sudipta Ghosh.