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How SnapPea ideal-triangulates link complements -- and Why

Student-Run Geometry/Topology Seminar

Speaker: Chan-Ho Suh, UC Davis
Location: 593 Kerr
Start time: Thu, Jan 20 2005, 1:10PM

I will explain ideal triangulations, in particular as applied to link complements. I will demonstrate Thurston's famous ideal triangulation of the figure eight knot complement and show how it leads to a general algorithm for ideal triangulation of link complements. There will be some discussion of why a computer implementation of such an algorithm (as in the program SnapPea) is useful.