Link cobordisms, configuration spaces and a more natural setting for (symplectic) Khovanov homology

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• Jack Waldron, Cambridge
• Wednesday 20 January 2010, 16:00-17:00
• MR 11.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Jake Rasmussen.

The Jones polynomial of links is still not naturally defined and not properly geometrically understood. Khovanov’s categorification of the Jones polynomial relates it to the geometry of smooth surfaces in 4D, but is also poorly geometrically understood. One attempt at fixing this is the so called ‘symplectic Khovanov homology’, which has nicer geometric properties and is conjectured to be isomorphic to Khovanov homology. I shall explain how observations about the geometry of configuration spaces give us a first step in proving this conjecture and also allow symplectic Khovanov homology to be more naturally presented for links and tangles.

This talk is part of the Differential Geometry and Topology Seminar series.

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