Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

The Dehn function is a group invariant which connects geometric and combinatorial group theory; it measures both the difficulty of the word problem and the area necessary to fill a closed curve in an associated space with a disc. The behavior of the Dehn function for high-rank lattices in high-rank symmetric spaces has long been an openquestion; one particularly interesting case is SL(n,Z). Thurston conjectured that SL(n,Z) has a quadratic Dehn function when n>=4.

I will discuss a conjecture that relates the degree of the Jones polynomial of a knot and its parallels with the slopes of incompressible surfaces in the knot complement. I will present examples, as well as computational challenges.

In 3-dimensional contact topology one of the main problem is classifying Legendrian (transverse) knots in certain knot type up to Legendrian ( transverse) isotopy. In particular we want to decide if two (one in case of transverse knots) classical invariants of this knots are complete set of invariants. If it is, then we call this knot type Legendrian (transversely) simple knot type otherwise it is called Legendrian (transversely) non-simple.

The goal of this talk is to describe simple constructions by which we can construct any compact, orientable 3-manifold. It is well-known that every orientable 3-manifold has a Heegaard splitting. We will first define Heegaard splittings, see some examples, and go through a very geometric proof of this therem. We will then focus on the Dehn-Lickorish Theorem, which states that any orientation-preserving homeomorphism of an oriented 2-manifold without boundary can by presented as the composition of Dehn twists and homeomorphisms isotopic to the identity.

In this talk I will discuss a generalizations and/oo applications of bordered Floer homology. After reviewing the basic definitions and constructions, I will focus either on an application to sutured Floer homology developed by Rumen Zarev, or on applications of the theory to the knot Floer homology. (While it would be good to have attended the other two talks this week, this talk shoudl be independent of them.) This is a 2 hour talk.

Here we will introduce the basic definitions of bordered Floer homology. We will discuss bordered Heegaard diagrams as well as the algebraic objects, like A_\infinity algebras and modules, involved in the theory. We will also discuss the pairing theorem which states that if Y = Y_1 U_\phi Y_2 is obtained by identifying the (connected) boundaries of Y_1 and Y_2, then the closed Heegaard Floer theory of Y can be obtained as a suitable tensor product of the bordered theories of Y_1 and Y_2.Note the different time and place!This is a 1.5 hour talk.

We will focus on the "toy model" of bordered Floer homology. Loosely speaking, this is bordered Floer homology for grid diagrams of knots. While the toy model unfortunately does not provide us with any knot invariants, it highlights many of the key ideas needed to understand the more general theory. Note the different time and place! This is a 1.5 hour talk.

Abstract: Heegaard floer homology is an invariant of closed 3 manifolds defined by Peter Ozsvath and Zoltan Szabo. It has proven to be a very strong invariant of 3 manifolds with connections to contact topology. In these talks we will try to define the Heegaard Floer homology without assuming much background in low dimensional topology. One more goal is to present the combinatorial description for this theory.

We will introduce new constructions of infinite families of smooth structures on small 4-manifolds and infinite families of smooth knottings of surfaces.