Sutured manifolds, limits and knot Heegaard Floer homology

Series
Geometry Topology Seminar
Time
Monday, August 26, 2013 - 2:00pm for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
John Etnyre – Georgia Tech
Organizer
John Etnyre
We will discuss how to define two invariants of knots using sutured Heegaard Floer homology, contact structures and limiting processes. These invariants turn out to be a reformulation of the plus and minus versions of knot Heegaard Floer homology and thus give a``sutured interpretation'' of these invariants and point to a deep connection between Heegaard Floer theory and contact geometry. If time permits we will also discuss the possibility of defining invariants of non-compact manifolds and of contact structures on such manifolds.