Stephen Smith : Quasithin groups and the classification of the finite simple groups

Posted by Lawrence Ein , part of the Graduate Student Colloquium.

At

Feb. 22, 2008, 3 p.m.

In

SEO 636

Abstract

Abstract: The classification of the finite simple groups was a project that involved hundreds of mathematicians and thousands of journal pages. It appeared to be complete by about 1981---except for the non-publication by Mason of his work on quasithin groups. The situation was finally fixed by Aschbacher and Smith in 2004 with the publication of their 2-volume work on the quasithin problem. The talk will be at an expository level, introducing the simple groups, along with the place of the quasithin groups in the overall classification. I will also mention at the end a more recently begun project (joint with Aschbacher, Lyons, and Solomon) to provide a detailed "outline" of the classification---with some new insights and connections that may illuminate future work. (I will continue this latter theme in my algebra seminar talk on Feb 25, which will also be at an expository level)