Topology Seminar: Hossein Namazi

The Masur criterion for Teichmuller geodesics relates the geometry of the Teichmuller space and random walks on the mapping class group of a surface to dynamical properties of vertical foliations of quadratic differentials. A major problem in the study of outer automorphism group OUT(F) of a nonabelian free group has been to find an analog for the Masur criterion. We discuss difficulties and explain our approach to this problem. We also mention applications of this result particularly in describing the space of random walks on the group of OUT(F). This is joint work with Alexandra Pettet and Patrick Reynolds.