On Thursday 20th of August 2026, in VRII-261, at 13:20, Gunnar Traustason (University of Bath) will give a lecture for the Mathematical Colloquium.
Title: On the boundary of finite and infinite symmetries, and the tyranny of the toddler prime 2
Abstract: In 1901 William Burnside posed some fundamental questions in group theory that are today known as the Burnside problems. Of these, the most general question was whether a finitely generated group that is periodic (all elements of finite order) must be finite. I will give a non-technical overview of this area of group theory, and explain the role left Engel elements and sandwich groups play, focusing on some recent results.