Mathematics Colloquia and Seminars

Return to Colloquia & Seminar listing

Low complexity Heegaard splittings

Geometry/Topology

Speaker: Chris Jerdonek, UC Davis
Location: 693 Kerr
Start time: Wed, Dec 5 2001, 4:10PM

It's easy to define different measures of complexity for 3-manifolds. For this talk we'll define the complexity of a Heegaard splitting to be the minimal intersection number between two essential discs, one on either side of the splitting surface. What can be said about this measure of complexity? For genus two splittings we'll enumerate some simpler manifolds and relate this complexity to the hyperbolic volume.