VIGRE: Math 699 Section 1
Current Topics in Topology: Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Summer 2010


Meeting time and place: Tuesdays from 1-2pm in Herman Brown 423
Instructors: Tim Cochran and Shelly Harvey

Participants (listed in alphabetic order):
    Faculty:
      Tim Cochran
      Shelly Harvey
      John Hempel
      Andy Putman (Summer 2010)

    Postdocs:
      Danielle O'Donnol
      Prudence Heck
      Elena Pavelescu

    Graduate Students:
      Khalid Bou-Rabee (U. Chicago and U. Michigan)
      Taylor Coon
      Chris Davis
      Andrew Elliot
      Bridget Franklin
      Derek Goto (Fall 2009 and Spring 2010)
      Taylor McNeill
      Carolyn Otto
      Daniel Tanner

Schedule:

Summer 2010
 
DateSpeakerTopic
5/4/10Bridget FranklinTransverse Knots Distinguished by Knot Floer Homology by L. Ng, P. Oszvath, and D. Thurston
5/11/10Tim CochranGropes
5/18/10Taylor McNeillBurau Representation of the Braid Group (from Birman's "Braids, Links and Mapping Class Groups")
5/25/10Khalid Bou-RabeeQuantifying residual finiteness of arithmetic groups
6/1/10Tim CochranMilnor's μ Invariants as Higher-Order Linking Numbers
7/6/10Prudence HeckShadows of links in 3-manifolds
7/13/10Andy PutnamCongruence subgroups of the special linear group and mapping class group
7/27/10no seminar
8/3/10no seminar
8/10/10Chris DavisPolynomial splittings of metabelian von Neumann rho-invariants of knots by S.-G. Kim and T. Kim
8/17/10Taylor CoonClasp-pass moves on knots, links and spatial graphs by K. Taniyama and A. Yasuhara
 
Spring 2010
 
DateSpeakerTopic
1/12/10organizational meeting
1/19/10Prudence HeckAn overview of D-groups and E-groups
1/26/10no seminar
2/2/10Elena PavelescuA congruence between link polynomials by Lee Rudolph and
Legendrian links of topological unknots by Klaus Mohnke
2/9/10Tim CochranHigher-Order signature cocycles for subgroups of the mapping class group of a surface
2/16/10Taylor CoonThe L^2 signature of torus knots by Julia Collins
2/23/10Bridget FranklinRational Linking and Contact Geometry by Ken Baker and John Etnyre
3/9/10Dave RoseKhovanov's homology for tangles and cobordisms by Dror Bar-Natan
3/23/10Chris DavisTwisted torsion invariants and link concordance by J.C. Cha and S. Friedl
3/30/10Carolyn OttoWhitehead Double and Milnor Invariants by J-B. Meilhan and A. Yasuhara
4/6/10Daniel TannerRational-slice knots via strongly negative amphicheiral knots by A. Kawauchi
 
Fall 2009
 
DateSpeakerTopic
8/25/09organizational meeting
9/1/09Chris DavisA brief introduction to simple homotopy theory and torsion
9/8/09Chris DavisA brief introduction to simple homotopy theory and torsion, con't.
9/15/09Danielle O'DonnolA Refinement of Conway-Gordon's Theorem by Ryo Nikkuni
9/22/09Bridget FranklinThe effect of the (n,1) cabling operation on concordance classes of knots
9/29/09Elena PavelescuOn transversally simple knots by J. Birman and N. Wrinkle
10/27/09Andrew ElliottBounds on the s invariant
11/3/09no seminar
11/10/09Carolyn OttoThe Classification of Links up to Link-Homotopy by Nathan Habegger and Xioa-Song Lin
11/17/09Carolyn OttoThe Classification of Links up to Link-Homotopy (con't)
11/24/09Taylor McNeillAn overview of S-equivalence for surfaces, matrices, and knots

Link to last year's seminar.
Please send all comments to Shelly Harvey (svhvevlvlvyvvvvv at rice dot edu, take out the v's)