The complex of pant decompositions of a surface

We exhibit a set of edges (moves) and 2-cells (relations) making the complex of pant decompositions on a surface a simply connected complex. Our construction, unlike the previous ones, keeps the arguments concerning the structural transformations independent from those deriving from the action of the mapping class group. The moves and the relations turn out to be supported in subsurfaces with 3g-3+n=1,2 (where g is the genus and n is the number of boundary components), illustrating in this way the so called Grothendieck principle.Comment: Minor changes in the introductio

From Operator Algebras to Superconformal Field Theory

We make a review on the recent progress in the operator algebraic approach to (super)conformal field theory. We discuss representation theory, classification results, full and boundary conformal field theories, relations to supervertex operator algebras and Moonshine, connections to subfactor theory and noncommutative geometry

Endotrivial modules for the sporadic simple groups and their covers

In a step towards the classification of endotrivial modules for quasi-simple groups, we investigate endotrivial modules for the sporadic simple groups and their covers. A main outcome of our study is the existence of torsion endotrivial modules with dimension greater than one for several sporadic groups with $p$-rank greater than one.Comment: in Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra, published online 19th February 201