Low-dimensional Topology and Algebraic Geometry Seminar: Т. Овчинникова

Low-dimensional topology and algebraic geometry
https://math.hse.ru/lowdimtop/
Math Department of the Higher School of Economics, Room 413
Thursday, December 7, 12:00-13:30

Speaker: Татьяна Овчинникова

Title: The Jones Polynomial and a conjecture of Tait

Abstract:
There were many difficulties in tabulating knots at the dawn of knot
theory. In this talk we will discuss one of the Tait Conjectures,
which were used to add many knots to the tables and assume they had
not been seen earlier. The conjecture states that any reduced,
alternating diagram of a knot has the minimal possible number of
crossings. It was made in the 19th century and was finally proved by
Morwen Thistlethwaite, Louis Kauffman and Kunio Murasugi in 1987,
using the Jones polynomial.