This course will take place from 2-4pm on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. 

Outer automorphism group $Out(F_n)$ of the free group $F_n$ of rank $n$ is part of the three great families of groups much studied in geometric group theory, the other two being arithmetic groups and mapping class groups. The goal of the course is to introduce the spaces on which $Out(F_n)$ acts and the basic techniques for studying this group. Analogies with mapping class groups guide the subject and some familiarity with them will be helpful, but not required.