In the first talk on our way to understanding trisections (which is a tool to classify closed oriented 4 manifolds), we will take a look at Heegaard splittings of 3-manifolds. They play an important role in the theory of trisections, both as a part of the definition and as a source of ideas and concepts. We will recall the definition of Heegaard splitting, its basic properties, and consider some examples to illustrate the concepts.
Graduate Student Geometry-Topology Seminar
Monday, March 13, 2017 - 3:15pm
Simon Lohove
University of Pennsylvania