Topology and related seminars: Marc Stephan

Carlsson conjectured that if a finite complex admits a free action by an elementary abelian p-group of rank n, then the sum of its mod-p Betti numbers is at least 2^n. For the prime p=2, he reduced the conjecture to an algebraic problem which he solved for low n. In this talk, we will retrace Carlsson's journey through homological and commutative algebra. The following week, I will report on joint work in progress with Jeremiah Heller with the goal of extending Carlsson's methods to all primes.