Holomorphic curves in geometry and topology III

Series
Geometry Topology Working Seminar
Time
Friday, September 16, 2011 - 2:00pm for 2 hours
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
John Etnyre – Ga Tech
Organizer
John Etnyre

Please Note: Recall this is a 2 hour seminar (2-4).

This series of talks will be an introduction to the use of holomorphic curves in geometry and topology. I will begin by stating several spectacular results due to Gromov, McDuff, Eliashberg and others, and then discussing why, from a topological perspective, holomorphic curves are important. I will then proceed to sketch the proofs of the previously stated theorems. If there is interest I will continue with some of the analytic and gometric details of the proof and/or discuss Floer homology (ultimately leading to Heegaard-Floer theory and contact homology).