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The Alexander polynomial of a knot and some associated invariants
Student-Run Geometry/Topology Seminar| Speaker: | Michael Williams, UC Davis |
| Location: | 2112 MSB |
| Start time: | Tue, Oct 23 2007, 1:10PM |
I will first discuss some classical aspects of the Alexander polynomial in terms of algebraic topology; the main reference is D. Rolfsen's great book ``Knots and links". The rest of the talk will focus on the recent categorification of the Alexander polynomial via knot Floer invariants discovered by P. Ozsv\'ath and Z. Szab\'o, and independently by J. Rasmussen; the main reference will be the nice survey article ``Heegaard diagrams and holomorphic disks" by Ozsv\'ath and Szab\'o.