University of London, Birkbeck College
Department:Economics, Mathematics and Statistics
Position:Department Member
Ben started following the journal Journal of Group Theory.
Ben started following the work of Jessica Leech, University of Cambridge, Philosophy.
Ben started following the work of 3 people.
Talks
Computing in sporadic groups: an application of symmetric generation
| Where: | Groups St Andrews, University of Bath |
| Dates: | 1st August 2009 - 15th August 2009 |
| When: | 2nd August 2009, 3pm - 4pm |
Mainly focuses on the content of the paper "Symmetric representation of the elements of the Conway group .0" with RT Curtis, Journal of Symbolic Computation 44 (2009) 1044-1067
The techniques of symmetric genration make it possible to express the elements of a group succinctly as what is essentialy a word of elements from a symmetric generating set. This can often represent a substantial saving in terms of memory space compared to the more traditional methods of representing group elements either as permutations or matrices. In this short talk we describe how these techniques have been successfully applied in the cases of a few of the sporadic groups.
Symmetric Generation of Not-So-Finite (Real) Reflection Groups
| Where: | LMS Triangle Meeting (Birmingham, London, Manchester) - Groups and their Application meeting, Manchester., Manchester Institute for Mathematical Sciences |
| Dates: | 25th February 2009 - 25th February 2009 |
| When: | 25th February 2009, 2pm - 3pm |
Presented paper ``Symmetric Presentations of Coxeter groups" submitted to "Communications in Algebra" and paper "Symmetric Generation of Coxeter Groups" accepted by Archiv Der Mathematik
This is joint work with RT Curtis and J M¨uller. The remarkable techniques of symmetric generation have furnished almost effortless constructions of a variety of interesting groups. In this talk we shall first discuss the existence of involutory symmetric generating sets for real reflection groups meeting certain finiteness conditions. This represents the first examples of infinite groups to succumbe to the techniques of symmetric generation.
Co_2 and the Higman-Sims graph
| Where: | University of Oxford, Postgraduate Group Theory Conference |
| Dates: | 11th April 2008 - 13th April 2008 |
| When: | 13th April 2008, 12pm - 1pm |
Unpublished work
The remarkable techniques of symmetric generation have furnished almost effortless constructions of a variety of interesting groups and in turn go a long way to ‘explaining’ existence of very exceptional objects such as sporadic groups. As an example, we present a recently discovered new presentation for the Conway group Co_2 that is readily described in terms of the Higman-Sims graph.
Symmetric Presentations of Coxeter Groups
| Where: | Conference in Honour of George Glauberman, University of Chicago. |
| Dates: | 24th March 2008 - 27th March 2008 |
| When: | 27th March 2008, 3pm - 4pm |
Presented paper ``Symmetric Presentations of Coxeter groups" submitted to "Communications in Algebra"
The remarkable techniques of symmetric generation have furnished several almost effortless constructions of many exceptional objects by exhibiting highly symmetric generating sets for groups. In particular, these generating sets often provide symmetric presentations for these groups. In this short talk, we will show how the familiar Coxeter-Moser presentations for the Coxeter groups of types A_n, D_n, and even the exceptional cases E_6, E_7, and E_8, may be naturally derived as symmetric presentations in an almost uniform manner. In doing so, we will construct representations of these groups with some striking properties.
A Black Box Algorithm For Computing in the Conway Group Dotto
| Where: | University of Cambridge, Postgraduate Group Theory Conference |
| Dates: | 11th April 2007 - 13th April 2007 |
| When: | 12th April 2007, 12pm - 1pm |
presented paper ``Symmetric Representation of the elements of the Conway Group Dotto"
In this talk we outline an algorithm that enables us to multiply
together elements of the Conway group dotto represented in a very succinct fashion thereby making this extremely succinct representation practical to use.
An Introduction to Symmetric Generation
| Where: | University of Southampton, Postgraduate Group Theory Conference |
| Dates: | 11th April 2006 - 13th April 2006 |
| When: | 13th April 2006, 3pm - 4pm |
We introuce the basic techniques of symmetric generation of finite groups
The remarkable techniques of symmetric generation provide an elementary means of producing almost effortless constructions of finite groups, most notably the sporadic simple groups. In this talk we shall introduce these techniques and as an example give a new construction of the sporadic simple Mathieu group M_{12}.