[Topology and Geometry Seminar] “A hands on introduction to Morse theory and handle decompositions” by Dr Dale Koenig

The Topology and Geometry Seminar aims to introduce current mathematical research topics starting from the very basics. Anyone interested in mathematics is welcome to attend.

This week, Dr Dale Koenig (postdoc in the Tsvietkova Unit) will speak on "A hands on introduction to Morse theory and handle decompositions".

Abstract: This talk will reapproach Morse theory from a more tangible perspective, exploring how Morse theory allows us to view smooth manifolds as being constructed from simple pieces called "handles". We will focus on dimensions 2 and 3 where we can often draw these decompositions using relatively accurate pictures. We use Morse theory in 3 dimensions to get a simple way of decomposing three dimensional manifolds into two pieces.