Symmetries in Graphs, Maps, and Polytopes

Abstract

The Symmetries In Graphs, Maps, And Polytopes Workshop 2014 was the fifth in a series of workshops, the first of which was organized by Steve Wilson in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1998, under the acronym SIGMAC (with the original ‘C’ standing for Complexes). The initial workshop was followed in 2002 and 2006 by two meetings held in Aveiro, Portugal, organized by Antonio Breda d’Azevedo, and the fourth workshop, the first under the name SIGMAP, held in Oaxaca, Mexico, organized by Isabel Hubard in 2010. The aim of the workshops is to give the worldwide community of researchers in symmetries of discrete objects and structures the opportunity to gather together, exchange information and present their newest findings and advances. The SIGMAP 2014 Workshop took place during 7–11 July 2014, in the idyllic environment of the ELIM Conference Centre in the beautiful area of Malvern, UK. It brought together a total of 62 researchers including a number of Ph.D. students. The list of invited plenary lecturers consisted of: • Marston Conder, University of Auckland, New Zealand; • Shaofei Du, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China; • Gareth Jones, University of Southampton, UK; • Roman Nedela, Matej Bel University, Slovakia; • Primož Potocnik, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; • David Singerman, University of Southampton, UK; • Asia Ivic Weiss, York University, Toronto, Canada; • Jurgen Wolfart, J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany. The emphasis of the scientific program was on connections between maps, Riemann surfaces and dessins d’enfants. Gareth Jones, David Singerman and Jurgen Wolfart jointly delivered a mini-course on these connections. Beside the mini-course, the daily program consisted of plenary lectures, 34 contributed paper presentations and many informal discussions held in a collegial and encouraging atmosphere. Everybody merrily joined in congratulating Jozef Siraň on the occasion of his 60th birthday. The Wednesday conference trip took us to the Worcester Cathedral and Library and included a short organ recital. All participants are to be thanked for their valuable contributions and for making SIGMAP 2014 a successful and memorable event. This volume contains 17 selected papers based on the talks delivered at the workshop, and it represents only a part of the workshop’s rich scientific program. Despite that, it is representative of the variety of topics considered and the interactions between them.