A monopole invariant for families of contact structures

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Juan Muñoz Echaniz, Columbia University
Fine Hall 314

Hybrid Event

Zoom link: https://princeton.zoom.us/j/453512481?pwd=OHZ5TUJvK2trVVlUVmJLZkhIRHFDUT09

The contact invariant is an element in the monopole Floer homology of a 3-manifold canonically attached to a contact structure.  I'll talk about a generalization of the contact invariant to families of contact structures and describe how this new invariant interacts with the U map in Floer homology. I will also describe some applications to the topology of spaces of contact structures and contactomorphisms.