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Lens space surgeries on knots in the 3-sphere

Student-Run Research Seminar

Speaker: Mike Williams, UC Davis
Location: 2112 MSB
Start time: Wed, Apr 25 2007, 12:10PM

An open problem in 3-dimensional topology and knot theory is to classify knots in the 3-sphere which admit lens space Dehn surgeries. It is conjectured that only certain knots, the so-called ``Berge knots", admit lens space surgeries. After defining the terms ``lens space" and ``Dehn surgery", I will discuss the conjectural picture for lens space surgeries and then give a sketch of my research on this conjecture.