Workshop

To be held at the Banff International Research Station, Canada Announcement is also available in PDF form This subject first arose from the study of Yang-Mills gauge theory on Y × R. It assigns to each Y a Floer homology group, in various flavors. More recently, a similar Floer homology theory has been developed based on Seiberg-Witten gauge theory. It is not clear whether the two versions give equivalent information; and because the equations of gauge theory are involved, computation of these groups is usually not possible. In early 2001, Peter Ozsvath and Zoltan Szabo produced a Floer homology theory whose definition is based on the theory of holomorphic curves and which is much more amenable to calculation. In more than a dozen papers, they have described a rich collection of formal properties of the new homology groups. Many researchers have become involved in developing this attractive version, and a number of related papers are appearing by other authors. A major challenge is to establish relations between the new and old Floer groups: conjectured relationships would have application to old problems in 3-dimensional topology. his conference will focus on the Ozsvath-Szabo theory and its applications, its potential relations to the other Floer theories, related 4-dimensional topics, and connections with contact and symplectic topology. The invited speakers include: Michael Hutchings, Mikhail Kovanov, Peter Kronheimer, Yi-Jen Li, Paolo Lisca, Chuck Livingston, Ciprian Mandescu, Tom Mrowka, Andreas Nemethi, Brendan Owens, Peter S. Ozsváth, Jacob Rasmussen, Andras Stipsicz, Saso Strle, Zoltan Szabo, Oleg Viro. We expect that the elucidation and discussion of recent progress in this and related areas will lead to a fruitful interaction among the principal researchers, students, postdocs, and other participants. Consequently, ample free time will be allocated for discussions and collaboration. The program will end on Thursday, November 13, in order to allow time for the participants to enjoy the recreational opportunities.