The (un)stable topology of configuration spaces

NSF Award Search · 01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT · $200,000 · view on nsf.gov ↗

Abstract

This project concerns the mathematics of multiple occupancy. Collecting the possible positions of a fixed number of agents in a given environment, and omitting those in which two or more agents collide, one obtains a space of inexhaustible theoretical and, in a present-future of automated factories and autonomous vehicles, practical interest. This project approaches configuration spaces from the vantage of algebraic topology, the mathematical inquiry into the global character of space, enriched and deepened by contemporary techniques and ideas from topological robotics, mathematical physics, representation stability, homotopical algebra, and higher category theory. In addition, the project funds will bring in seminar speakers, enriching the mathematical environment of local graduate students and contributing to the advancement of early career researchers. The project has two main components. In the first, the environment or background space is a graph. In this arena, the aim is to understand asymptotic phenomena in Betti numbers and multiplicities of irreducible representations, identify universal generators and relations, investigate torsion phenomena, and calculate topological complexity in the unstable regime. In the second, the background space is manifold, and the aim is to compute positive characteristic homology by leveraging a connection to spectral Lie algebras, to study the invariance properties of configuration spaces, and to calculate the homology of the ordere

Key facts

NSF award ID
2551600
Awardee
Colorado State University (CO)
SAM.gov UEI
LT9CXX8L19G1
PI
Benjamin Knudsen
Primary program
01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
All programs
Estimated total
$200,000
Funds obligated
$200,000
Transaction type
Standard Grant
Period
09/01/2025 → 08/31/2028