Department of

# Mathematics

Seminar Calendar
for events the day of Friday, September 10, 2021.

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events for the
events containing

Questions regarding events or the calendar should be directed to Tori Corkery.
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31


Friday, September 10, 2021

2:00 pm in 347 Altgeld Hall,Friday, September 10, 2021

#### To Be Announced

###### Scott Harman (UIUC)

Abstract: Scott will talk about his VERY COOL research! Cookies will be provided to those cool enough to attend.

4:00 pm in Altgeld Hall 347,Friday, September 10, 2021

#### What is an Alternating Knot?

###### Brannon Basilio

Abstract: One class of knots which is straight forward to understand through its definition is alternating knots. However, although these classes of knots are abundant in knots with a low number of crossings, it becomes increasingly rare to find and even harder to detect as we encounter knots with higher crossing numbers. Alternating knots have certain properties that no other classes of knots have. For example, the degree of its Alexander polynomial is equal to twice its genus. Thus, we may use this to find when a knot is not alternating. However, proving a knot is alternating is a difficult task. We thus state a recent result giving an equivalent definition of knots using only the topology of its complement in S^3. This talk does not assume any knowledge about knots, and relevant definitions will be covered throughout the talk.