COLLOQUIUM
Jones’ Conjecture and
Matsuda Branched Surfaces
Dr. Douglas LaFountain
Visiting Postdoc and Lecturer
University of California, Berkeley
Abstract
Conjectures that are easy to state and yet difficult to prove provide
wonderful grist for the mill of mathematics. In this talk we will
discuss a 25-year-old conjecture of Vaughan Jones concerning
topological links and closed braids, namely that the algebraic
length of a braid at minimum index is a link invariant. We will
present a new approach to this problem which reduces the original
question to a more tractable conjecture concerning links projected
onto a specific family of simple branched surfaces, providing
hope for an affirmative resolution of the general problem. This is
joint work with Hiroshi Matsuda and Bill Menasco; familiarity
with the subject will not be required.
Department of
Mathematics
Wednesday,
February 29th,
2012
4:00 p.m.
204 Morgan Hall
Refreshments will be
served at 3:45 p.m.