2012 Redbud Geometry/Topology Conference

本次会议将由李涛和其他专家就基本群体的分裂和等级问题进行一些讨论。heegard分裂是将三维流形沿着表面分解成两个简单的称为柄体的部分。Heegaard分裂定义了3流形基本群的一种表示形式，其中产生子的数目等于曲面的格数。因此，3流形的秩（最小发生器数）小于或等于最小Heegaard曲面的属。在大多数情况下，秩和属是相等的，但也发现了少数秩严格小于属的例子。李涛最近发现了秩严格小于属的双曲3流形的第一个例子。这就提出了这样一个问题：这些例子有多普遍，等级和属之间的差异有多大？当我们从地面上看地球表面时，它似乎是一个向各个方向无限延伸的平面。然而，从世界导航和从太空观察地球，我们知道，它实际上是一个完全不同的形状——一个球体，或一个球的表面。同样，我们生活的宇宙似乎是一个向各个方向无限延伸的平坦的三维空间。不幸的是，我们没有办法检验它的实际形状，但是我们可以研究它可能的形状。这是三维拓扑的重点。本次会议将汇集来自世界各地的专家，讨论研究三维空间的代数方法和几何方法之间的接口的最新发展。http://comp.uark.edu/~matthewd/redbud/http://www.math.okstate.edu/~jjohnson/redbud/

This conference will feature a number of talks by Tao Li and by other experts on Heegaard splittings and ranks of fundamental groups. A Heegaard splitting is a decomposition of a 3-dimensional manifold into two simple pieces called handlebodies along a surface. A Heegaard splitting defines a presentation for the fundamental group of the 3-manifold in which the number of generators is equal to the genus of the surface. Thus the rank of the 3-manifold (the minimal number of generators) is less than or equal to the genus of the minimal Heegaard surface. In most cases, rank and genus are equal, but a small number of examples have been found in which the rank is strictly less than the genus. Tao Li recently discovered the first examples of hyperbolic 3-manifolds with rank strictly less than genus. This raises the question of how common these examples are and how big the difference between rank and genus can be.When we look at the surface of the earth from ground level, it appears to be a flat plane that goes on forever in all directions. However, from world navigation and viewing the earth from space, we know that it is, in fact, a completely different shape - a sphere, or the surface of a ball. Similarly, the universe that we live in appears to be a flat 3-dimensional space that goes on forever in all directions. Unfortunately we have no way of checking what the shape actually is, but we can study the possible shapes that it could be. This is the focus of 3-dimensional topology. This conference will bring together experts from around the world to discuss recent developments at the interface between algebraic methods and geometric methods for studying 3-dimensional spaces.http://comp.uark.edu/~matthewd/redbud/http://www.math.okstate.edu/~jjohnson/redbud/