We start by recalling gauge theory and some of its applications in low-dimensional topology. We briefly discuss Donaldson-Thomas program to extend the methods of gauge theory to study higher-dimensional manifolds, specially Calabi-Yau 3-folds and G2-manifolds. Finally, we will see that the study of gauge theory in higher dimensions motivates new ideas and questions in low-dimensional topology.

In this talk, we will study strongly negative amphicheiral knots - a class of knots with symmetry. These knots provide torsion elements in the knot concordance group, which are less understood than infinite-order elements. We will introduce the half-Alexander polynomial, an equivariant version of the Alexander polynomial for strongly negative amphicheiral knots, focusing on its applications to knot concordance. In particular, I will show how it facilitated the construction of the first examples of non-slice amphicheiral knots of determinant one. This talk is based on joint work with Keegan Boyle.

While establishing various versions of the h-principle for contact distributions (Eliashberg (1989) in dimension 3, Borman-Eliashberg-Murphy (2015) in arbitrary dimension, and even-contact contact (D. McDuff, 1987) distributions are among the most remarkable advances in differential topology in the last four decades, very little is known about analogous results for other classes of distributions, e.g. generic distributions of corank 2 or higher. The smallest dimensional nontrivial case of corank 2 distributions is Engel distributions, i.e. the maximally nonholonomic rank 2 distributions on $4$-manifolds. This case is highly nontrivial and was treated recently by Casals-Pérez-del Pino-Presas (2017) and Casals-Pérez-Presas (2017). In my talk, I will show how to use the method of convex integration in order to establish all versions of the h-principle for corank 2 distributions of arbitrary odd rank satisfying a natural generic assumption on the associated pencil of skew-symmetric forms. During the talk, I will try to give all the necessary background related to the method of convex integration in principle. This is the joint work with Milan Jovanovic, Javier Martinez-Aguinaga, and Alvaro del Pino.

We discuss the following recent result of the speaker. Suppose a closed 3-manifold M has scalar curvature at least 1, and has nontrivial second homotopy group, and is not covered by the cylinder (S^2)*R. Then the pi_2-systole of M (i.e. the minimal area in the second homotopy group) is bounded by a constant that is approximately 5.44pi. If we include quotients of cylinder into consideration, then the best upper bound is weakened to 8_pi. This shows a topological gap in the pi_2-systolic inequality. We will discuss the ideas behind this theorem, as well as the proof using Huisken and Ilmanenâ??s weak inverse mean curvature flow.

We discuss new methods for using the Heegaard Floer homology of hypersurfaces to distinguish between smooth closed 4-manifolds that are homeomorphic but non-diffeomorphic. Specifically, for a 4-manifold X with b_1(X)=1, the minimum rank of the reduced Heegaard Floer homology of any embedded 3-manifold X representing a generator of H_1(X) gives a diffeomorphism invariant of X. We use this invariant to distinguish certain infinite families of exotic 4-manifolds that cannot be distinguished by previously known techniques. Using related ideas, we also provide the first known examples of (non-simply-connected) exotic 4-manifolds with negative definite intersection form. This is joint work with Tye Lidman and Lisa Piccirillo.

Ossian Bonnet (1819â??1892) classified the surfaces in Euclidean 3-space that can be isometrically deformed without changing the mean curvature function H, showing that there are two types: the surfaces of constant mean curvature and a 4-dimensional â??exceptional familyâ?? (with variable mean curvature) that are now known as Bonnet surfaces. The corresponding problem in affine 3-space is much more difficult, and the full classification is still unknown. More than 10 years ago, I classified the affine surfaces that can isometrically deformed (with respect to the induced Blaschke metric) while preserving their affine mean curvature in a 3-dimensional family (the maximum dimension possible), showing that they depend on 2 functions of 1 variable in Cartanâ??s sense. When I gave a talk* in this seminar about these results on September 10, 2013, I only knew that these surfaces corresponded to pseudoholomorphic curves in a certain almost-complex surface. However, I have recently shown that the structure equations for these mysterious surfaces can be interpreted as describing holomorphic Legendrian curves in CP^3 subject to a natural positivity condition, and the integration corresponds to a flat sp(2,R) connection, i.e., they can be interpreted as a Lax pair, but of a very special kind, for which the integration can be effected explicitly. Iâ??ll explain these results and use them to show how the classical problem of determining the affine surfaces with constant affine mean curvature and constant Gauss curvature of the Blaschke metric can be explicitly integrated, which, heretofore, was unknown. * https://www4.math.duke.edu/media/watch_video.php?v=6948e657e69cadbaa1a6915335e9ea87

We define an equivariant Lagrangian Floer theory on compact symplectic toric manifolds for the subtorus actions. We prove that the set of Lagrangian torus fibers (with weak bounding cochain data) with non-vanishing equivariant Lagrangian Floer cohomology forms a rigid analytic space. We can apply tropical geometry to locate such Lagrangian torus fibers in the moment map. We show that these Lagrangian submanifolds are nondisplaceable by equivariant Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms.

Motivated by G2-manifolds with coassociative fibrations in the adiabatic limit, Donaldson and Scaduto conjectured the existence of associative submanifolds homeomorphic to a three-holed 3-sphere with three asymptotically cylindrical ends in X \times R^3, where X is an A2-type ALE hyperkähler manifold. We prove this conjecture by solving a real Monge-Ampère equation with singular right hand side. The method produces many other asymptotically cylindrical U(1)-invariant special Lagrangians in X \times R^2, where X arises from the Gibbons-Hawking construction. This is joint work in progress with Saman Habibi Esfahani.