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Geometry-Topology Seminar

Thursday, March 17, 2011 - 4:45pm

Vera Vertesi

MIT

Location

Temple University

Wachman Hall (1805 North Broad St.), Room 617

Joint meeting with PATCH Seminar at Temple University

In this talk I investigate transverse knots in the standard contact structure on R^3. These are knots for which y>dz/dx. The name "transverse" comes from the fact that these knots are positively transverse to the contact planes given by the the kernel of the 1-form dz-ydx. The classification of transverse knots has been long investigated, and several invariants were defined for their distinction, one classical invariant is the self-linking number of the transverse knot, that can be given as the linking of the knot with its push off by a vector field in the contact planes that has a nonzero extension over a Seifert surface. Smooth knot types whose transverse representatives are classified by this classical invariant are called transversaly simple. In this talk I will talk about how transverse simplicity is inherited for positive braid satelites of smooth knot types.