Anssi Lahtinen: String topology of classifying spaces

Analogous to string topology of manifolds, string topology of classifying spaces studies the rich algebraic structure admitted by the homology groups of free loop spaces of classifying spaces of compact Lie groups. In this talk, I will discuss my recent joint work with Richard Hepworth where we extend the previously available structure in string topology of classifying spaces into an entirely new kind of field theory which includes operations parameterized by homology groups of automorphism groups of free groups with boundaries in addition to operations parameterized by mapping class groups of surfaces. This work shows that the algebraic structures in string topology of classifying spaces can be brought into line with, and in fact far exceed, those available in string topology of manifolds. Preprint: http://arxiv.org/abs/1308.6169