The principle investigator endeavors to deepen our understanding of geometric objects on 3-manifolds called contact structures. In recent years, contact structures have moved to the forefront of mathematical interest after featuring prominently in the resolution of several long-standing conjectures. The first goal of this project is to probe connections linking contact structures and Heegaard Floer invariants. Since it's introduction roughly a decade ago, Heegaard Floer theory has revolutionized the study of knots, 3-manifolds and smooth 4-manifolds. This project seeks to better understand how geometric properties of contact structures imprint themselves in the algebraic formalism of Heegaard Floer invariants. The project's second goal is to study connections between geometric characteristics of contact structures and topological properties of the open book decompositions that support them. Specifically, the principle investigator aims to develop obstructions to contact structures having support genus one and to find lower bounds for the binding number. Finally, the project seeks to broaden our understanding of Legendrian and transverse knot theory. To accomplish this, the principle investigator aims to develop new Legendrian and transverse invariants and to apply these and other known invariants to classify Legendrian and transverse representatives in a broad class of knot types.
The principle investigator seeks to broaden our understanding of 3 and 4-dimensional spaces by studying geometric objects called contact structures. Contact structures first appeared in physics through the work of Hamilton, Huygens and Jacobi on geometric optics. They provide a natural language for studying optics, classical mechanics and thermodynamics, and have applications in many subfields of physics and mathematics. They are a tool one can use to probe 3 and 4-dimensional spaces to better understand their shape and geometric structure. The development of techniques for studying these spaces ultimately helps to informs us about the topological and geometric characteristics of our own universe.
