Speaker: Cameron Gordon, University of Texas
Date: Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Time: 1:00pm – 2:15pm
Place: Lecture Hall 102, Simons Center
Abstract: The unknotting number u(K) of a knot K is the minimal number of times you must allow K to pass through itself in order to unknot it. Although this is one of the oldest and most natural knot invariants, it remains mysterious. We will survey known results on u(K) and describe some joint work with John Luecke on algebraic knots with u(K) = 1.