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The topology and algebra of graph manifolds
Colloquium| Speaker: | Jennifer Schultens, Emory University |
| Location: | 693 Kerr |
| Start time: | Wed, Jan 8 2003, 4:10PM |
We discuss a class of 3-manifolds called graph manifolds. Graph manifolds constitute one of the two major classes of 3-manifolds. Of particular interest is their complexity. The Heegaard genus is a measure of the topological complexity of a 3-manifold. The rank of the fundamental group is a measure of the algebraic complexity of a 3-manifold. The Poincare Conjecture can be rephrased to claim that if the latter is 0, then the former is also 0. We shall see that there are graph manifolds for which the discrepancy between the two measures is arbitrarily large.
3:45 Refreshments will be served before the talk in 551 Kerr Hall