Past Topology Seminar

In this talk, we introduce the (general) homotopy groups of spheres as link invariants for Brunnian-type links through the investigations on the intersection subgroup of the normal closures of the meridians of strongly nonsplittable links. The homotopy groups measure the difference between the intersection subgroup and symmetric commutator subgroup of the normal closures of the meridians and give the invariants of the links obtained in this way. Moreover all homotopy groups of any dimensional spheres can be obtained from the geometric Massey products on certain links.

Bourdon's building is a negatively curved 2-complex built out of hyperbolic right-angled polygons. Its automorphism group is large (uncountable) and remarkably rich. We study, and mostly answer, the question of when there is a discrete subgroup of the automorphism group such that the quotient is a closed surface of genus g. This involves some fun elementary combinatorics, but quickly leads to open questions in group theory and number theory. This is joint work with David Futer.

The talk will begin with a brief account of the construction of string topology operations. I will point out some mysteries with the formulation of these operations, such as the role of (moduli) of surfaces, and pose some questions. The remainder of the talk will address these issues. In particular, I will sketch some ideas for a higher-dimensional version of string topology. For instance, (1) I will describe an E_{d+1} algebra structure on the (shifted) homology of the free mapping space H_*(Map(S^d,M^n)) and (2) I will outline how to obtain operations H_*(Map(P,M)) -> H_*(Map(Q,M)) indexes by a moduli space of zero-surgery data on a smooth d-manifold P with resulting surgered manifold Q.

The subject of this talk is the structure of the space of homomorphisms from a free abelian group to a Lie group G as well as quotients spaces given by the associated space of representations.

These spaces of representations admit the structure of a simplicial space at the heart of the work here.

Features of geometric realizations will be developed.

What is the fundamental group or the first homology group of the associated space in case G is a finite, discrete group ?

This deceptively elementary question as well as more global information given in this talk is based on joint work with A. Adem, E. Torres, and J. Gomez.

TBA

Physical space-time is a manifold with a Lorentzianmetric, but the more mathematical treatments of the theory usually prefer toreplace the metric with a positive - i.e. Riemannian - one. The passage fromLorentzian to Riemannian metrics is called 'Wick rotation'. In my talk I shallgive a precise description of what is involved, and shall explain some of itsimplications for physics.

We define a chain complex B_*(C, M) (the "blob complex") associated to an n-category C and an n-manifold M. This is in some sense the derived category version of a TQFT. Various special cases of the blob complex are

familiar: (a) if M = S^1, then the blob complex is homotopy equivalent to the Hochschild complex of the 1-category C; (b) for * = 0, H_0 of the blob complex is the Hilbert space of the TQFT based on C; (c) if C is a commutative polynomial ring (viewed as an n-category), then the blob complex is homotopy equivalent to singular chains on the configuration (Dold-Thom) space of M. The blob complex enjoys various nice formal properties, including a higher dimensional generalization of the Deligne conjecture for Hochschild cohomology.

If time allows I will discuss applications to contact structures on 3-manifolds and Khovanov homology for links in the boundaries of 4-manifolds. This is joint work with Scott Morrison.

I shall describe the notion of finite decomposition complexity (FDC), introduced in joint work with Romain Tessera and Guoliang Yu on the Novikov and related conjectures. The talk will focus on the definition of FDC and examples of groups having FDC.

Let G be a compact semisimple Lie group. A classical paper of Atiyah and Bott (from 1982) studies the moduli space of flat G-bundles on a fixed Riemann surface S. Their approach completely determines the integral homology of this moduli space, using Morse theoretic methods. In the case where G is U(n), this moduli space is homotopy equivalent to the moduli space of holomorphic vector bundles on S which are "semi-stable". Previous work of Harder and Narasimhan determined the Betti numbers of this moduli space using the Weil conjectures. 20 years later, a Madsen and Weiss determined the homology of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces, in the limit where the genus of the surface goes to infinity.

My talk will combine these two spaces: I will describe the homology of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces S, equipped with a flat G-bundle E -> S, where we allow both the flat bundle and the surface to vary. I will start by reviewing parts of the Atiyah-Bott and Madsen-Weiss papers. Our main theorem will then be a rather easy consequence. This is joint work with Nitu Kitchloo and Ralph Cohen.

In this lecture, I will illustrate the cobordism hypothesis by presenting some examples. Exact content to be determined, depending on the interests of the audience.

In this lecture, I will give a more precise statement of the Baez-Dolan cobordism hypothesis, which gives a description of framed bordism (higher) categories by a universal mapping property. I'll also describe some generalizations of the cobordism hypothesis, which take into account the structure of diffeomorphism groups of manifolds and which apply to manifolds which are not necessarily framed.

In this lecture, I'll give an overview of some ideas from higher category theory which are needed to make sense of the Baez-Dolan cobordism hypothesis. If time permits, I'll present Rezk's theory of complete Segal spaces (a model for the theory of higher categories in which most morphisms are assumed to be invertible) and explain how bordism categories can be realized in this framework.

In this lecture, I will review Atiyah's definition of a topological quantum field theory. I'll then sketch the definition of a more elaborate structure, called an "extended topological quantum field theory", and describe a conjecture of Baez and Dolan which gives a classification of these extended theories.

I will outline the proof of two old conjectures of Cameron Gordon. The first states that the maximal number of exceptional Dehn surgeries on a 1-cusped hyperbolic 3-manifold is 10. The second states the maximal distance between exceptional Dehn surgeries on a 1-cusped hyperbolic 3-manifold is 8. The proof uses a combination of new geometric techniques and rigorous computer-assisted calculations.

This is joint work with Rob Meyerhoff.

The notion of a sutured 3-manifold was introduced by Gabai. It is a powerful tool in 3-dimensional topology. A few years ago, Andras Juhasz defined an invariant of sutured manifolds called sutured Floer homology.

I'll discuss a simpler invariant obtained by taking the Euler characteristic of this theory. This invariant turns out to have many properties in common with the Alexander polynomial. Joint work with Stefan Friedl and Andras Juhasz.

There is a well-known relationship between the theory of formal group schemes and stable homotopy theory, with Ravenel's chromatic filtration and the nilpotence theorem of Hopkins, Devinatz and Smith playing a central role. It is also familiar that one can sometimes get a more geometric understanding of homotopical phenomena by examining how they interact with group actions. In this talk we will explore this interaction from the chromatic point of view.