Livestream:  https://youtube.com/live/vnNgv75eVKU

We will introduce the Alexander polynomial, one of the most famous (and useful) classical invariants of knots, and then prove (modulo one or two hard black-boxed theorems) an important result of Freedman’s, that knots with Alexander polynomial 1 bound topological slice disks.

We will end with a poll of what the audience would like to hear next. In particular, as currently envisioned, the talks focus heavily on the existence question for surfaces; I will ask if the audience would like a detour to uniqueness, or to maintain our focus.

Minerva Course Materials