April 17th, 2008

Josh Greene (Princeton)

Title: Floer homology and knot concordance

Abstract: I will talk about two recent approaches to the study of smooth knot concordance, one coming from Donaldson theory, the other from Heegaard Floer homology. Then I will discuss how to combine the two to give a novel test for a knot to be slice, and apply the test to determine the concordance order of three-stranded pretzel knots.