Georgia Institute of Technology School of Mathematics | Georgia Institute of Technology | Atlanta, GA

In 1982, by using his celebrated disk embedding theorem, Freedman classified simply connected topological 4-manifolds up to homeomorphism. The disk embedding conjecture says that the disk embedding theorem holds for general 4-manifolds with arbitrary fundamental groups. The conjecture is a central open question in 4-manifold topology. In this introductory survey talk, I will briefly discuss Freedman's disk embedding conjecture and some related conjectures (the topological 4-dimensional surgery conjecture and the s-cobordism conjecture). I will also explain why the disk embedding conjecture implies that all good boundary links are freely slice.