Groups and convexity - almost!

Susan Hermiller
Department of Mathematics, University of Nebraska

Abstract: When a group has a finite generating set, this set can be used to define the distance between group elements, forming a metric space. To understand a picture of this space, it is useful to be able to draw the ball of any radius centered at the identity element of the group. For many groups, this ball is not a convex subset of the group. In this talk, I'll discuss groups for which any ball about the identity is almost convex.