Math 499, Section 004
VIGRE PFUG: SHADOW LINKS
Time: Mondays, 12 - 12:50 PM
Place: HBH 427
Organizational meeting Monday, August 23, at 12 noon in HBH 427.
Come learn about this fun new PFUG and get FREE pizza!
Shadow links are diagrams of links in certain 3-manifolds. That is, links in spaces that locally look like 3-dimensional Euclidean space, but globally are quite different. We will attempt to recover certain invariants of knots in 3-dimensional Euclidean space via shadow links and, if time permits, generalize these invariants to knots in other 3-manifolds.
If you are interested in being part of this PFUG, please email Dr. Heck at Prudence.Heck@rice.edu before Saturday, August 28. This is a 1 unit class, although variable credit is also available. The suggested prerequisite is Math 212.
VIGRE is a program sponsored by the National Science Foundation to carry out innovative educational programs in which research and education are integrated and in which undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty are mutually supportive.
Past PFUGs
Knots and 3-manifolds (Spring 2010)
In this PFUG we will study some standard 3-dimensional manifolds. That is, spaces that locally look like 3-dimensional Euclidean space, but globally are quite different. We will also consider knots in these manifolds.
Legendrian knots and links (Fall 2009)
In this PFUG we will explore Legendrian knots and links in R3 with the standard contact structure. Some of the topics that will be covered are the front and Lagrangian projections, Legendrian Reidemeister moves, and Legendrian stick number. We will also investigate some open questions concerning Legendrian knots and links.