Two of the most well-studied topics in geometric group theory are CAT(0) cube complexes and mapping class groups. This is in part because they both admit powerful combinatorial-like structures that encode their (coarse) geometry: hyperplanes for the former and curve graphs for the latter. In recent years, analogies between the two theories have become more apparent.
Given n points on a disk, we will describe how to build an A-infinity category based on the instanton Floer complex of links, and explain why it is finitely generated. This is based on work in progress with Ko Honda.
We study reducible surgeries on knots in S^3, developing thickness bounds for L-space knots that admit reducible surgeries and lower bounds on the slice genus of general knots that admit reducible surgeries. The L-space knot thickness bounds allow us to finish off the verification of the Cabling Conjecture for thin knots. Our techniques involve the d-invariants and mapping cone formula from Heegaard Floer homology. This is joint work with Holt Bodish.
Given an immersed, Maslov-0, exact Lagrangian filling of a Legendrian knot, if the filling has a vanishing index and action double point, then through Lagrangian surgery it is possible to obtain a new immersed, Maslov-0, exact Lagrangian filling with one less double point and with genus increased by one. We show that it is not always possible to reverse the Lagrangian surgery: not every immersed, Maslov-0, exact Lagrangian filling with genus g ≥ 1 and p double points can be obtained from such a Lagrangian surgery on a filling of genus g − 1 with p+1 double points.
We study a particular distinguished component (the 'Hitchin component') of the space of surface group representations to SL(3,\R). In this setting, both Hitchin (via Higgs bundles) and the more ancient subject of affine spheres associate a bundle of holomorphic differentials over Teichmuller space to this component of the character variety. We focus on a ray of holomorphic differentials and provide a formula, tropical in appearance, for the asymptotic holonomy of the representations in terms of the local geometry of the differential. Alternatively, we show how t
A map (respectively, a unicellular map) on a genus g surface Sg is the Homeo+(Sg)-orbit of a graph G embedded on Sg such that Sg-G is a collection of finitely many disks (respectively, a single disk). The study of maps was initiated by W. Tutte, who was interested in counting the number of planar maps. However, we will consider maps from a more graph theoretic perspective in this talk. We will introduce a topological operation called surgery, which turns one unicellular map into another.
This talk will focus on surfaces (orientable connected 2-manifolds) with noncompact boundary. Since a general surface with noncompact boundary can be extremely complicated, we will first consider a particular class called Sliced Loch Ness Monsters. We will discuss how to show the mapping class group of any Sliced Loch Ness Monster is uniformly perfect and automatically continuous.
