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Menasco's crossing bubble technique

Student-Run Geometry/Topology Seminar

Speaker: Chan-Ho Suh, UC Davis
Location: 3106 MSB
Start time: Tue, Sep 5 2006, 1:10PM

I will explain the basics of Menasco's crossing bubble technique. Straightforward applications are to show the hyperbolicity of many alternating link complements and the nonexistence of totally geodesic closed surfaces in hyperbolic, alternating link complements. I will then explain Menasco and Thistlethwaite's extension of the technique to propertly embedded surfaces in link complements. Using this, I will give a brief overview on how a new algorithm for the unknotting problem results.