9/16/2004

Paola Lisca
Pisa

Contact Ozsvath-Szabo invariants and tight contact structures

I will talk about recent joint work with Andras Stipsicz on the existence of tight contact structures on closed, oriented three-manifolds. After stating the results I will describe the two main tools used in their proofs, i.e. contact surgery and the Ozsvath-Szabo invariants for contact structures. If time permits I will then outline some of the proofs.