Friday, April 10, 2015 (3:00 p.m. in Yost 306)

Title: From the Jones Polynomial to Khovanov Homotopy

Speaker: Robert Lipschitz (Associate Professor, Columbia University Department of Mathematics)

Abstract: We will start by introducing some basic questions in knot theory.  We will then talk about the Jones polynomial, a knot invariant from the 1980’s, and how it lets you answer some of those questions (some of the time).  We will then introduce two more refined knot invariants, Khovanov homology and a Khovanov stable homotopy type, and mention some of their applications.  The very last part of the talk is joint work with Tyler Lawson and Sucharit Sarkar.