Abstract: A Hamiltonian isotopy class of positive Lagrangians in an almost Calabi-Yau manifold admits a natural Riemannian metric. This metric has a Levi-Civita connection, and hence, it gives rise to a notion of geodesics. The geodesic equation is fully non-linear degenerate elliptic, and in general, it is yet unknown whether the initial value problem and boundary problem are well-posed. However, results on the existence of geodesics could shed new light on special Lagrangians, mirror symmetry and the strong Arnold conjecture.

Abstract: We will give a beginner's introduction to simple homotopy theory and explain how it applies to prove the s-cobordism theorem, a generalization of the h-cobordism theorem for non-simply-connected h-cobordisms.

Abstract: Over a decade ago Welschinger defined invariants of real symplectic manifolds of complex dimensions 2 and 3, which count $J$-holomorphic disks with boundary and interior point constraints. Since then, the problem of extending the definition to higher dimensions has attracted much attention.

Abstract: Joyce and others have used shifted symplectic geometry to define Donaldson-Thomas Invariants. This kind of geometry naturally appears on derived moduli stacks of perfect complexes on Calabi-Yau varieties. One wonderful feature of shifted symplectic geometry (developed by Pantev, Toën, Vaquié and Vezzosi) is that fibre products (i.e. intersections) of Lagrangians automatically carry Lagrangian structures. Using a strange property of triple intersections from arXiv:1309.0596, this extra structure can be organized into a 2-category.

Abstract: We construct positive-genus analogues of Welschinger's invariants for many real symplectic manifolds, including the odd-dimensional projective spaces and the quintic threefold. Our approach to the orientability problem is based entirely on the topology of real bundle pairs over symmetric surfaces. This allows us to endow the uncompactified moduli spaces of real maps from symmetric surfaces of all topological types with natural orientations and to verify that they extend across the codimension-one boundaries of these spaces.

Title: Invariants of Random Knots. Abstract: Random curves in space and how they are knotted give an insight into the behavior of "typical" knots and links, and are expected to introduce the probabilistic method into the mathematical study of knots. They have been studied by biologists and physicists in the context of the structure of random polymers. There have been many results obtained via computational experiment, but few explicit computations.

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Abstract: We use a geometric idea to give an analytic estimate for the word-length in the pure braid group of S^2. This yields that the L^1-norm (and hence each L^p-norm, including L^2) on the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of S^2 is unbounded. This solves an open question arising from the work of Shnirelman and Eliashberg-Ratiu. Joint work in progress with Michael Brandenbursky.

Abstract: The unit circle viewed as a Riemannian manifold has diameter (not 2 but rather) π, illustrating the difference between intrinsic and ambient distance. Gromov proceeded to erase the difference by pointing out that when a Riemannian manifold is embedded in L∞, the intrinsic and the ambient distances coincide in a way that is as counterintuitive as it is fruitful. Witness the results of his 1983 Filling paper.

Abstract: The classical theorem of Van Kampen and Flores states that the k-dimensional skeleton of (2k+2)-dimensional simplex cannot be embedded into R2k. We present a version of this theorem for chain maps and as an application we prove a qualitative topological Helly-type theorem. If we define the Helly number of a finite family of sets to be one if all sets in the family have a point in common and as the largest size of inclusion-minimal subfamily with empty intersection otherwise, the theorem can be stated as follows:

**Note the special location** Abstract:

Abstract: In this pair of talks I will discuss how to obtain fixed-point expressions for open Gromov-Witten invariants. The talks will be self-contained, and the second talk will only require a small part of the first talk, which we will review. The Atiyah-Bott localization formula has become a valuable tool for computation of symplectic invariants given in terms of integrals on the moduli spaces of closed stable maps. In contrast, the moduli spaces of open stable maps have boundary which must be taken into account in order to apply fixed-point localization. Homological perturbation

Abstract: One of the first applications of model categories was Quillen homology. Building on the notion of Beck modules, one defines the cotangent complex of an associative or commutative (dg)-algebras as the derived functor of its abelianization. The latter is a module over the original algebra, and its homology groups are called the (Andre'-)Quillen homology. The caveat of this approach is that the cotangent complex is not defined as a functor on the category of all algebras.

Abstract: An elastic energy functional of a Riemannian manifold  is a function that measures the distance of an embedding u:→ℝd from being isometric. In many applications, the manifold in consideration is actually a limit of other manifolds, that is,  is a limit of n in some sense. Assuming that we have an elastic energy functional for each n, can we obtain an energy functional of  which is a limit of the functionals of n?

Abstract: The contact mapping class group of a contact manifold V is the set of contact isotopy classes of its contactomorphisms. When V is the 2n-dimensional (n at least 2) Am Milnor fiber times the circle, with a natural contact structure, we show that the full braid group Bm+1 on m+1strands embeds into the contact mapping class group of V. We deduce that when n=2, the subgroup Pm+1 of pure braids is mapped to the part of the contact mapping class group consisting of smoothly trivial classes. This solves the contact isotopy problem for V.