McMaster University

Fields Institute


 Conference on
Geometry and Topology of Manifolds
May 14-18, 2004
Hamilton, Ontario

A Conference on Geometry and Topology of Manifolds will be held at the campus of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, during May 14–18, 2004.  The conference will be hosted by the Research Group in Geometry and Topology at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, and it is co-sponsored by the Fields Institute.

Contents

Conference Scope

The objective of this conference is to describe recent progress in low-dimensional topology arising from geometric techniques, such as gauge theory, symplectic and contact geometry, etc., as well as to discuss, and to compare questions, methods and applications.

Participants


  • Danny Acosta, Southeastern Louisiana University
  • Selman Akbulut, Michigan State University
  • Dave Auckly, Kansas State University
  • Denis Auroux, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Scott Baldridge, Indiana University
  • Jens von Bergmann, Michigan State University
  • Igor Belegradek, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Steve Boyer, Université du Québec à Montréal
  • Vasile Brinzanescu, Romanian Academy
  • Jason Calmes, Tulane University
  • Weimin Chen, Tulane University
  • Patrick Clarke, University of Miami
  • Olivier Collin, Université du Québec à Montréal
  • Cindy Curtis, College of New Jersey
  • Jim Davis, Indiana University
  • Fabrizio Donzelli, University of Miami
  • John Etnyre, University of Pennsylvania
  • Paul Feehan, Rutgers University
  • Ronald Fintushel, Michigan State University
  • Stefan Friedl, Rice University
  • Kim Frøyshov, University of Bielefeld
  • David Gay, Université du Québec à Montréal
  • Robert Gompf, University of Texas, Austin
  • Mathew Hedden, Columbia University
  • Christopher Herald, University of Nevada, Reno
  • Benjamin Himpel, Indiana University
  • Ko Honda, University of Southern California
  • Jacques Hurtubise, McGill University
  • Gabriel Indurskis, Université du Québec à Montréal
  • Eleny Ionel, University of Wisconsin
  • Stanislav Jabuka, Columbia University
  • Lisa Jeffrey, University of Toronto
  • Louis Kauffman, University of Illinois, Chicago
  • Paul Kirk, Indiana University
  • Vyacheslav Krushkal, University of Virginia
  • Terry Lawson, Tulane University
  • Yi-Jen Lee, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
  • Tom Leness, Florida International University
  • Tian-Jun Li, University of Minnesota
  • Yuhan Lim, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Natasha Macura, Trinity University
  • Thomas Mark, Southeastern Louisiana University
  • Joseph Masters, University of Buffalo
  • Gordana Matic, University of Georgia
  • Mike McCooey, Franklin and Marshall College
  • William Menasco, University of Buffalo
  • Tomasz Mrowka, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Andras Nemethi, Ohio State University
  • Liviu Nicolaescu, University of Notre Dame
  • Martin Niepel, Princeton University
  • Burak Ozbagci, Koc University
  • Jongil Park, Konkuk University
  • Tom Parker, Michigan State University
  • Eric Pedersen, SUNY Binghamton
  • Andrew Ranicki, University of Edinburgh
  • Jacob Rasmussen, Princeton University
  • Dale Rolfsen, University of British Columbia
  • Daniel Ruberman, Brandeis University
  • Nikolai Saveliev, University of Miami
  • Adam Sikora, University of Buffalo
  • Margaret Symington, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Masamichi Takase, Yokohama National University
  • Larry Taylor, University of Notre Dame
  • Michael Usher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Jeremy van Horn, University of Texas, Austin
  • Stefano Vidussi, Kansas State University
  • Wojciech Wieczorek, University of Wisconsin


Important Dates

  • Deadline for proposing a talk: February 15, 2004.
    •
  • Conference will begin on Friday, May 14, 2004 at 9:00 a.m. and will end Tuesday, May 18, 2004 at 5:15 pm.
    •

Schedule of Talks

Note: All talks held in Room 302, Hamilton Hall

Friday, May 14th

8:30 – 9:00
 Registration, outside HH/218  
9:00 – 9:45
 Weimin Chen Smooth s-cobordisms of elliptic 3-manifolds
10:00 – 10:45
 Steve Boyer Characteristic subsurfaces, character varieties and Dehn filling
11:00 – 11:30
 Coffee Break  
11:30 – 12:15
 Bob Gompf Stein surfaces as open subsets of C^2
Lunch  
3:00 – 4:00
 Paul Feehan & Tom Leness SO(3) monopoles: The overlap problem
Tea Break  
4:30 – 5:15
 Eleny Ionel Curves and Gromov-Witten invariants of 3-folds
5:30 – 6:15
 Tian-Jun Li Symplectic surfaces in symplectic manifolds
7:00
 Reception at the University Club  

Saturday, May 15th
9:00 – 9:45
 Jim Davis Stable Diffeomorphisms and a fake connected sum of RP^4
10:00 – 10:45
 Denis Auroux Near symplectic structures and Lefschetz pencils on smooth 4-manifolds
Coffee Break  
11:30 – 12:15
 Selman Akbulut 4-manifold corks and fillings
Lunch  
3:00 – 4:00
 Danny Ruberman & Nikolai Saveliev Rohlin's invariant and gauge theory
Tea Break  
4:30 – 5:15
 Michael Usher Lefschetz fibrations and pseudoholomorphic curves
5:30 – 6:15
 Ko Honda Controlled constructions of Reeb vector fields
   

Sunday, May 16th

9:00 – 9:45
 Stefano Vidussi Isotopy problem for symplectic 4-manifolds
10:00 – 10:45
 YiJen Lee A Seiberg-Witten model for Heegaard Floer homologies
Coffee Break  
11:30 – 12:15
 Ron Fintushel Invariants of Lagrangian tori
Lunch  
   

Monday, May 17th

9:00 – 9:45
 Kim Frøyshov Compactness and non-compactness for monopoles
10:00 – 10:45
 András Némethi The Seiberg-Witten invariant conjecture and projective plane curves
Coffee Break  
11:30 – 12:15
 Tomasz Mrowka From foliations of three manifolds to representations of their fundamental groups
Lunch  
3:00 – 4:00
 Brendan Owens & Saso Strle Definite manifolds bounded by rational homology three-spheres
Tea Break  
4:30 – 5:15
 Jacob Rasmussen Khovanov homology and the slice genus
5:30 – 6:15
 Igor Belegradek Collapsing theory and classification of negatively pinched manifolds with amenable fundamental groups

Tuesday, May 18th
9:00 – 9:45
 Jongil Park New symplectic 4-manifolds with b_2^+=1
10:00 – 10:45
 Paul Kirk Minimizing the Euler characteristic of 4-manifolds with free abelian fundamental groups
Coffee Break  
11:30 – 12:15
 John Etnyre Invariants of embeddings via contact geometry
Lunch  
2:00 – 3:00
 Stanislav Jabuka & Thomas Mark Heegaard Floer homology and mapping tori
Tea Break  
3:30 – 4:15
 Scott Baldridge Geography of symplectic 4-manifolds with Kodaira dimension one
4:30 – 5:15
 Slava Krushkal Link groups of 4-manifolds

 

Abstracts & Program

Organizing Committee

To propose a talk for inclusion in the conference, please contact any member of the organizing committee.

Location Information

The conference will take place at McMaster University in the recently renovated James Stewart Centre for Mathematics (pictured above), located in Hamilton Hall and home of the Department of Mathematics & Statistics.

Hamilton is conveniently located in the heart of Southeastern Ontario, one of Canada's most prosperous areas. The Great Lakes and the Niagara region are within easy drives. The flight possibilities are excellent. The McMaster campus is a 45-minute drive from Toronto's Pearson International Airport. Hamilton also has a small airport of its own with regular service to Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa and other cities in Canada on Westjet.   

Most participants will be flying into Toronto's Pearson Airport, and there is a convenient shuttle service that will bring you directly to Hamilton offered through Airways Transit. The one-way fare is $38 per person, a special conference rate for which advanced booking is required. Reservations can be made online at the Airways Transit Website, or by calling (905) 689-4460. Be sure to mention mentioning the 2004 Manifolds Conference to get the special rate. This and other transportation options:

 

If you are driving, follow these directions to get to campus and then use the campus map. The conference building is Hamilton Hall. If you intend to park on campus, please email Tina Campbell for instructions.

See here for current Hamilton weather.

 

Registration

There is no formal registration process, but if you plan to come, please send a short email to one of the organizers by May 1, 2004.

Accommodation

Special conference rates have been negotiated at the following hotels. Please arrange for your own accomodation, and when making your reservation, mention the Geometry of Manifolds Conference to obtain the special rate.

 
Hotel Room Rate Parking Comments

McMaster University
Mary Keyes Residence
Tel: (905) 525-9140, ext. 24781
Fax: (905) 529-3319
e-mail: confs@mcmaster.ca


Single  $62
included		 Student residence (suites). Four rooms, two washrooms, and common area in each suite.

Visitor's Inn 
649 Main Street West
Tel:  (905) 529-6979
Toll-free: 1-800-387-4620 
Fax: (905) 529-6979
http://www.visitorsinn.com/
Single   $87
Double  $93
Free
Pool, restaurant,
2 km from University

Admiral Inn 
149 Dundurn Streeet North
Tel:  (905) 529-2311
Toll-free: 866-236-4662 
Fax: (905) 529-9100
http://www.admiralinn.com
Single   $90
Double  $90
Free
Restaurant,
4 km from University

Parking

Parking is available on campus, and is free on Saturday and Sunday.If you need to park your car on campus, please email Tina Campbell for instructions.

Contacts

Program:  Hans U. Boden
Secretary: Tina Campbell

 Last updated:  05/03/2004