The Kervaire Conjecture
Think about your favourite non-trivial group. Now add a generator to it and then add any relation. Is the resulting group still non-trivial? The above question is known as the Kervaire conjecture. Phrased more concretely, if \(G\) is any non-trivial group and \(r \in G \ast \mathbb{Z}\), is \((G \ast \mathbb{Z})/\langle\!\langle r\rangle\!\rangle\) again non-trivial? This … Continue reading "The Kervaire Conjecture"