KNOTS in Poland III
Conference on Knot Theory and its Ramification

Stefan Banach International Mathematical Center (POLAND)
July 18 - 24, 2010 (Warsaw)
July 25 - August 4, 2010 (Będlewo)

Schedule

Program:

A workshop and a conference are addressed to all mathematicians who are interested in knot theory. This discipline has rapidly expanded after the discovery, by V. F. R. Jones, of a new and powerful invariant of links and culminated in discovery of Khovanov homology and Heegaard Floer homology.

A brief description of the topics:

There have been exciting new developments in the area of Knot Theory and 3-manifold topology in recent years. These include Thurston's work on geometric structures on 3-manifolds, Jones work on invariants of links in S³ and development in the theory of invariants of 3-manifolds based on Jones and Vassiliev type invariants of links. Jones' and Thurston's ideas are connected by the path: Hyperbolic structures, PSL(2,C) representations, character varieties, quantization of the coordinate ring of the variety to skein modules (i.e. Kauffman bracket skein module), and quantum invariants of 3-manifolds. Finally, a new development in knot theory has emerged in the form of "Khovanov homology" categorification of the Jones polynomial. We would like to cover all these exciting topics.

Organizing Committee:

  1. J. H. Przytycki (George Washington University, Washington, USA)
  2. P. Traczyk (Warsaw University, Poland) E-mail.

Program Committee:

  1. Anna Beliakova, UZH, Switzerland,
  2. Charles Frohman, University of Iowa, USA,
  3. Cameron Gordon, University of Texas, Austin, USA,
  4. Vaughan F. R. Jones, University of California, Berkeley, USA,
  5. Efstratia Kalfagianni, Michigan State University, USA,
  6. Joanna Kania-Bartoszyńska, National Science Foundation, USA,
  7. Louis H. Kauffman, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA,
  8. Michael Khovanov, Columbia University, USA,
  9. Ruth Lawrence, Hebrew University, Israel,
  10. Hugh Morton, University of Liverpool, England,
  11. Tom Mrowka, MIT, USA,
  12. Kunio Murasugi, University of Toronto, Canada,
  13. Dale Rolfsen, University of British Columbia, Canada.

Topics include:

  1. Quantum and finite type invariants of knots and 3-manifolds,
  2. Algebraic topology based on knots (e.g. skein modules),
  3. Symmetries of links,
  4. Link invariants and partition functions of statistical mechanics,
  5. Links with coinciding polynomial invariants,
  6. Virtual Knot Theory,
  7. Quandles and their homology,
  8. Khovanov homology of links,
  9. Heegaard Floer homology,
  10. Applications of the knot theory.

We expect to be able to cover living expenses (including housing) for a limited number of participants. We will not be able to cover any travel expenses. We particularly encourage Ph.D. students interested in starting research related to knot theory to apply. All are welcome to participate.