Event № 2240

We will present a combinatorial gadget satisfying certain symmetry properties and show how it allows us to study the normal subgroup growth of a rather large class of nilpotent groups, including base extensions of free nilpotent groups of class two and of amalgamations of base extensions of Heisenberg groups.  These are results of joint work with Angela Carnevale and Christopher Voll.  The talk will assume no prior knowledge of the subject.