Contact topology in higher dimensions

This workshop, sponsored by AIM, the NSF, and the ESF network CAST, will be devoted to developing high dimensional contact topology. While the existence of contact structures on 3-manifolds is well understood and we know quite a lot about properties of contact structures on 3-manifolds, very little is known about the nature of high dimensional contact topology, and even the basic existence questions for contact structures on higher dimensional manifolds are unknown except in a few cases.

The main topics for the workshop are

• The existence of contact structures on all odd dimensional manifolds.
• The exploration of the number and type of contact structures a given manifold can support.
• The study of Legendrian submanifolds of a contact manifold.
• The non-squeezing phenomenon.
• The investigation of symplectic fillings in high dimensions.

The workshop will differ from typical conferences in some regards. Participants will be invited to suggest open problems and questions before the workshop begins, and these will be posted on the workshop website. These include specific problems on which there is hope of making some progress during the workshop, as well as more ambitious problems which may influence the future activity of the field. Lectures at the workshop will be focused on familiarizing the participants with the background material leading up to specific problems, and the schedule will include discussion and parallel working sessions.

The deadline to apply for support to participate in this workshop has passed.

For more information email workshops@aimath.org

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