Topology Seminar: Siddhi Krishna

The L-Space Conjecture is taking the low-dimensional topology community by storm. It aims to relate seemingly distinct Floer homological, algebraic, and geometric properties of a closed 3-manifold Y. In particular, it predicts a 3-manifold Y isn't "simple" from the perspective of Heegaard-Floer homology if and only if Y admits a taut foliation. The reverse implication was proved by Ozsvath and Szabo. In this talk, we'll present a new theorem supporting the forward implication. Namely, we'll use branched surfaces to build taut foliations for manifolds obtained by surgery on positive 3-braid closures. No background in Heegaard-Floer or foliation theories will be assumed.