10/16/2008

John Baldwin
Princeton University

Khovanov homology, open books, and tight contact structures

I will discuss a construction modeled on Khovanov homology which associates to a surface, S, and a product of Dehn twists, Phi, a group Kh(S,Phi). The group Kh(S,Phi) may sometimes be used to determine whether the contact structure compatible with the open book (S,Phi) is tight or non-fillable. This construction generalizes the relationship between the reduced Khovanov homology of a link and the Heegaard Floer homology of its branched double cover.