Mathematical Sciences Geometry/Topology Seminar

February 24:
Speaker: Brendan Owens (Cornell)
Title: Unknotting numbers and Heegaard Floer theory

Abstract: Ozsvath and Szabo recently described an obstruction to a knot having unknotting number one, using the Heegaard Floer invariants of the branched double cover of the knot. I will describe this obstruction and work in progress to generalise it.