## Seminars and Colloquia by Series

Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - 14:05 , Location: Skiles 005 , Eric Choi , Emory University , Organizer:
Knowledge of rays and critical points of infinity in von Mangoldt planes can be applied to understanding the structure of open complete manifolds with lower radial curvature bounds. We will show how the set of souls is computed for every von Mangoldt plane of nonnegative curvature. We will also make some observations on the structure of the set of critical points of infinity for von Mangoldt planes with negative curvature.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - 14:00 , Location: Skiles 005 , Meredith Casey , Georgia Tech , Organizer:
The main purpose of this talk is to better understand how to use branched covers to construct 3-manifolds.  We will start with branched covers of 2-manifolds, carefully working through examples and learning the technology.  Using these methods in combination with open book decompositions we will show how to construct 3-manifolds by branching over link and knots in S^{3}.  Particular emphasis will be placed on using the map to get a "coloring" of the branched locus and how this combinatorial data is useful both for explicit constructions and for the general theory.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 14:05 , Location: Skiles 005 , Amey Kaloti , Georgia Tech , Organizer:
In this talk we will outline proof due to Plameneveskaya and Van-Horn Morris that every virtually overtwisted contact structure on L(p,1) has a unique Stein filling. We will give a much simplified proof of this result. In addition, we will talk about classifying Stein fillings of ($L(p,q), \xi_{std})$ using only mapping class group basics.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - 14:05 , Location: Skiles 005 , Amey Kaloti , Georgia Tech , Organizer:
In this talk we will outline proof due to Plameneveskaya and Van-Horn Morris that every virtually overtwisted contact structure on L(p,1) has a unique Stein filling. We will give a much simplified proof of this result. In addition, we will talk about classifying Stein fillings of ($L(p,q), \xi_{std})$ using only mapping class group basics.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - 14:05 , Location: Skiles 005 , Marta Aguilera , Georgia Tech , Organizer:
In this talk I define the braid groups, its Garside structure, and its application to solve the word and conjugacy problems. I present a braid group with $n$ strands as the  mapping class group of the disk with $n$ punctures, $\mathbb{D}^2-\{p_1\ldots p_n\}$, and a classification of surface homeomorphisms by the Nielsen Thurston theorem. I will also discuss results that require algebraic and geometric tools.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - 14:05 , Location: Skiles 005 , Bulent Tosun , Georgia Tech , Organizer:
Continuation of last week's talk
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - 14:05 , Location: Skiles 005 , Bulent Tosun , Georgia Tech , Organizer:
Wednesday, July 6, 2011 - 14:00 , Location: Skiles 005 , Anh Tran , Georgia Tech , Organizer:
I will define character varieties of finitely generated groups and consider some applications of them in geometry/topology.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - 14:00 , Location: Skiles 005 , Becca Winarski , Georgia Tech , Organizer:
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - 14:00 , Location: Skiles 006 , Meredith Casey , Georgia Tech , Organizer: