Geometry and Topology

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A single soap bubble has a spherical shape since it minimizes its surface area subject to a fixed enclosed volume of air. When two soap bubbles collide, they form a “double-bubble” composed of three spherical caps. The double-bubble minimizes total surface area among all sets enclosing two fixed volumes. This was proven mathematically in a landmark result by Hutchings-Morgan-Ritore-Ros and Reichardt using the calculus of variations in the early 2000s. The analogous case of three or more Euclidean sets is considered difficult if not impossible.

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It is well known that a Euclidean set of fixed Euclidean volume with least Euclidean surface area is a ball. For applications to theoretical computer science and social choice, an analogue of this statement for the Gaussian density is most relevant. In such a setting, a Euclidean set with fixed Gaussian volume and least Gaussian surface area is a half space, i.e. the set of points lying on one side of a hyperplane. This statement is called the Gaussian Isoperimetric Inequality.
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In this talk, we will discuss various ways to describe three-manifolds by decomposing them into pieces that are (maybe) easier to understand. We will use these descriptions as a way to measure the complexity of a three-manifold.
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Following an idea of Hugelmeyer, we give a knot theory reproof of a theorem of Schnirelman: Every smooth Jordan curve in the Euclidian plane has an inscribed square. We will comment on possible generalizations to more general Jordan curves.

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Moment problem is a classical question in real analysis, which asks whether a set of moments can be realized as integration of corresponding monomials with respect to a Borel measure. Truncated moment problem asks the same question given a finite set of moments. I will explain how some of the fundamental results in the truncated moment problem can be proved (in a very general setting) using elementary convex geometry. No familiarity with moment problems will be assumed. This is joint work with Larry Fialkow.

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I will give a brief survey of concordance in high-dimensional knot theory and how slice results have classically been obtained in this setting with the aid of surgery theory. Time permitting, I will then discuss an example of how some non-abelian slice obstructions come into the picture for 1-knots, as intuition for the seminar talk about L^2 invariants.

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The question of which high-dimensional knots are slice was entirely solved by Kervaire and Levine. Compared to this, the question of which knots are doubly slice in high-dimensions is still a largely open problem. Ruberman proved that in every dimension, some version of the Casson-Gordon invariants can be applied to obtain algebraically doubly slice knots that are not doubly slice.

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The classical degree-genus formula computes the genus of a nonsingular algebraic curve in the complex projective plane. The well-known Thom conjecture posits that this is a lower bound on the genus of smoothly embedded, oriented and connected surface in CP^2. The conjecture was first proved twenty-five years ago by Kronheimer and Mrowka, using Seiberg-Witten invariants. In this talk, we will describe a new proof of the conjecture that combines contact geometry with the novel theory of bridge trisections of
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The semi-cubical cusp which is formed in the bottom of a mug when you shine a light on it is an everyday example of a caustic. In this talk we will become familiar with the singularities of Lagrangian and Legendrian fronts, also known as caustics in the mathematics literature, which have played an important role in symplectic and contact topology since the work of Arnold and his collaborators.
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We will present an h-principle for the simplification of singularities of Lagrangian and Legendrian fronts. The h-principle says that if there is no homotopy theoretic obstruction to simplifying the singularities of tangency of a Lagrangian or Legendrian submanifold with respect to an ambient foliation by Lagrangian or Legendrian leaves, then the simplification can be achieved by means of a Hamiltonian isotopy. We will also discuss applications of the h-principle to symplectic and contact topology.

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