Winter School on Volume Conjecture, Chern-Simons Theory and Knot Contact Homology
December 14–18, 2015
IBS Center for Geometry and Physics, Pohang, South Korea
The aim of this winter school is to expose graduate students and junior researchers to the exciting recent developments induced by the interactions among knot theory, Chern-Simons gauge theory, hyperbolic geometry and contact topology.
Since the advent of E. Witten's definition of the Jones polynomial using Chern-Simons theory, there have been numerous related developments in the area of topological quantum field theory. In the past two decades, a connection has arisen to another mathematical pillar: W. Thurston's geometrization of 3 manifolds, especially hyperbolic geometry.
The volume conjecture, suggested by R. Kashaev, H. Murakami and J. Murakami, is the first conjectued connection to relate the colored Jones polynomial to hyperbolic volume. Moverover, the AJ conjecture, suggested by S. Garoufalidis and T. Le, describes a relation between this colored Jones polynomial and the A-polynomial, i.e. P SL(2, C) character varieties of the knot groups. On the other hand, it turns out that the A-polynomial can be refined to the augmentation polynomial in knot contact homology, which was introduced by T. Ekholm, J. Etnyre, L. Ng and M. Sullivan. Furthermore, a grand unifying picture containing all of these things, enhanced by categorified quantum invariants like Khovanov homology, was suggested by S. Gukov and other physicists.
The program will consist of four pedagogical lecture series, delivered by world-leading experts in these various fields: T. Ekholm, S. Garoufalidis, S. Gukov and R. Kashaev.
Financial support for local travel and accommodation will be available for all graduate students and post-doctoral participants.
Invited lecturers
- Tobias Ekholm (Uppsala University)
- Stavros Garoufalidis (Georgia Institute of Technology)
- Sergei Gukov (California Institute of Technology)
- Rinat Kashaev (Université de Genève)
Venue
- Math. Bldg #404, POSTECH
Organizers
- Jaigyoung Choe (Korea Institute for Advanced Study)
- Seonhwa Kim (IBS Center for Geometry and Physics)
- Yong-Geun Oh (IBS Center for Geometry and Physics & POSTECH)
Registration
Online registration is available here until November 30, 2015.
Financial support is not available to those who didn't registered by the registration deadline.
How to get to POSTECH
Visit here for information about how to get to Pohang.
For the location of the conference site, click here for POSTECH Campus Map.
Lectures Schedule
| December 14 (Mon) | December 15 (Tue) | December 16 (Wed) | December 17 (Thu) | December 18 (Fri) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00 – 10:00 | Registration | Registration | |||
| 10:00 – 12:00 | R. Kashaev | T. Ekholm | S. Garoufalidis | S. Gukov | S. Garoufalidis (10:00–11:30) |
| 12:00 – 14:00 | Lunch | Lunch | |||
| 14:00 – 15:30 | S. Garoufalidis | S. Gukov | R. Kashaev | T. Ekholm | |
| 15:30 – 16:00 | Break | Break | |||
| 16:00 – 17:30 | S. Gukov | R. Kashaev | T. Ekholm | ||
| Reception* | |||||
For the title and abstract, please click here.
Accommodation
To visit the website of the hotel, please click the name of the hotel.
| POSCO Int'l Center | Hotel Yeongildae | Apple Tree Hotel | Philos Hotel | Benikea Hotel Pohang | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Double Room | 88,000 KRW | 110,000 KRW | 50,000 KRW | 90,000 KRW | 70,000 KRW |
| Twin Room | 88,000 KRW | 132,000 KRW | 60,000 KRW | 90,000 KRW | 80,000 KRW |
| Breakfast (1 person) |
13,200 KRW | 12,000 KRW | free | 14,300 KRW | free |
| Distance from Venue | 5 min. by walk | 5 min. by car | 10 min. by car | 15 min. by car | 15 min. by car |
| Contact | +82-54-279-8500 | +82-54-221-9452 | +82-54-241-1234 | +82-54-250-2000 | +82-54-282-2700 |
* The above rate is as of April, 2015 (VAT included)
** The rate may vary
Visa
Please visit here and if you need to apply for the visa to attend the conference, please contact geometry@ibs.re.kr. We would request a copy of your passport and up-to-date CV for review.
Contact
geometry@ibs.re.kr
