Departmental Colloquium
Jacob Rasmussen
University of Cambridge
Minimal genus surfaces in 3 and 4 dimensions
Abstract: Given a smooth manifold $M$ and a primitive homology class $x \in H_2(M)$, what is the minimal genus of a smoothly embedded surface representing $x$? I'll discuss what we know about this question, and describe applications to topology in dimension three (understanding knots with lens spaces surgeries) and four (constructing exotic $\mathbb R^4$'s).
Friday November 19, 2010 at 3:00 PM in SEO 636