Algebra/Topology Seminar

Speaker: Michael Borinsky

Title; On the amount of top-weight cohomology in the moduli space of curves

Abstract: I will present new results on the asymptotic growth rate of the Eulercharacteristic of Kontsevich's commutative graph complex. By a work of Chan, Galatius and Payne, these results imply the same asymptotic growth rate for the top-weight Euler characteristic of M_g, the moduli space of curves, and establish the existence of large amounts of top-weight cohomology of this space. I will illustrate the ingredients for the proof and comment on related recent work with Karen Vogtmann on Out(F_n) and the moduli space of graphs.