Seminars and Colloquia by Series

Introduction to Branched Covers

Series
Geometry Topology Student Seminar
Time
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Meredith Casey – Georgia Tech
The main purpose of this talk is to better understand how to use branched covers to construct 3-manifolds. We will start with branched covers of 2-manifolds, carefully working through examples and learning the technology. Using these methods in combination with open book decompositions we will show how to construct 3-manifolds by branching over link and knots in S^{3}. Particular emphasis will be placed on using the map to get a "coloring" of the branched locus and how this combinatorial data is useful both for explicit constructions and for the general theory.

Stein fillings on Lens spaces II

Series
Geometry Topology Student Seminar
Time
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 14:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Amey Kaloti – Georgia Tech
In this talk we will outline proof due to Plameneveskaya and Van-Horn Morris that every virtually overtwisted contact structure on L(p,1) has a unique Stein filling. We will give a much simplified proof of this result. In addition, we will talk about classifying Stein fillings of ($L(p,q), \xi_{std})$ using only mapping class group basics.

Stein fillings on Lens spaces.

Series
Geometry Topology Student Seminar
Time
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - 14:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Amey Kaloti – Georgia Tech
In this talk we will outline proof due to Plameneveskaya and Van-Horn Morris that every virtually overtwisted contact structure on L(p,1) has a unique Stein filling. We will give a much simplified proof of this result. In addition, we will talk about classifying Stein fillings of ($L(p,q), \xi_{std})$ using only mapping class group basics.

Algebraic and geometric aspects of Braid Groups

Series
Geometry Topology Student Seminar
Time
Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - 14:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Marta Aguilera – Georgia Tech
In this talk I define the braid groups, its Garside structure, and its application to solve the word and conjugacy problems. I present a braid group with $n$ strands as the mapping class group of the disk with $n$ punctures, $\mathbb{D}^2-\{p_1\ldots p_n\}$, and a classification of surface homeomorphisms by the Nielsen Thurston theorem. I will also discuss results that require algebraic and geometric tools.

Pages