Northeastern University

Weiming Lake, Peking University

Tsinghua University

What is This Workshop?

The workshop is an informal research conference focusing on interactions of 3- and 4-dimensional topology. This year it will run fully online. The event features a series of three lectures given by Mark Powell (University of Glasgow) on 4-dimensional topology and 18 one-hour talks on recent trends.

What is It about?

Two major breakthroughs made by Donaldson and Freedman in the early 1980s revealed a profound distinction between smooth 4-manifolds and topological 4-manifolds. Their work opened floodgates to the study of 4-manifolds in various categories (topological, smooth, symplectic). Over the last two decades, 4-manifold topology and 3-dimensional topology have become more closely intertwined than ever, leading to exciting research in multiple directions: Various Floer theory for 3-manifolds and knots have been developed; new invariants and obstructions regarding embedding surfaces in 4-manifolds have been introduced; deeper connection to symplectic geometry and quantum topology have been discovered; a better understanding of topology of the diffeomorphism and homeomorphism groups is being resembled; and a program to explore possible role of the Ricci flow in 4-manifolds has been initiated. To bring together experts working in these areas around the world, a workshop is being organized. The aim of the workshop is to serve as a platform for reporting on recent progress and exchanging ideas to foster new interactions.

How to Participate?

Online participation will be open to all who register. The deadline for registration is March 3rd.

Speakers

John Baldwin (Boston College)
Yuanyuan Bao (University of Tokyo)
Ryan Budney (University of Victoria)
Bennett Chow (University of California, San Diego)
Kyle Hayden (Rutgers University)
Danica Kosanović (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich)
Slava Krushkal (University of Virginia)
Tian-jun Li (Unversity of Minnesota)
Zhenkun Li (Stanford University)
Ciprian Manolescu (Stanford University)
Maggie Miller (Stanford University)
Yu Pan (Tianjin University)
Mark Powell (University of Glasgow)
Daniel Ruberman (Brandeis University)
Steven Sivek (Imperial College)
Yang Su (Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Sungkyung Kang (IBS Center for Geometry and Physics)
Tadayuki Watanabe (Kyoto University)

Organizers

Shijie Gu (Northeastern University)
Jianfeng Lin (Tsinghua University)
Yi Xie (Peking University)

Sponsors