Venue: Room 204, Hai Na Yuan #2, Zijingang Campus

Time: 16:00 - 17:20, October 13

Speaker: 张硕 Shuo Zhang (Morningside Center)

Pretalk: Symplectic rigidity and counting curves

Abstract: A symplectic structure is more rigid than a smooth structure but more flexible than Riemannian or complex structures. A central theme in symplectic topology is to develop tools for detecting different types of rigidity. In this talk, I will give a survey of pseudo-holomorphic curves and explain how they have become the most powerful tool for this purpose.

Research talk: Quilted TCFT and applications

Abstract: Invariants defined by counting pseudo-holomorphic maps from Riemann surfaces with boundary are ubiquitous in symplectic geometry, low-dimensional topology, and mathematical physics. Examples include various types of Floer homologies, Fukaya categories, and Gromov–Witten theory. In this talk, I will survey a generalization developed by Wehrheim–Woodward, known as pseudo-holomorphic quilts. I will then present some applications of quilted invariants, including my proof of a conjecture of Seidel concerning the Floer homology of composed Dehn twists.