Winter school in singularities and low-dimensional topology

The Erdős Center semester on "Singularities and low-dimensional topology" will kick off with a 2-phase winter school to introduce early stage researchers (MSc students, PhD students, postdocs) to some key concepts in singularities and low-dimensional topology.

Phase 1 (pre-school)

Phase 1 is primarily aimed at motivated MSc students and early-stage PhD students, and will consist of a 2-day intense topological preparation for phase 2.

Dates: 20-21 January 2023
Location: Rényi Institute
Pre-requisites: Manifolds, vector bundles, homology, cohomology, Chern classes.
Topics include: Morse homology, Heegaard splittings, Kirby calculus, plumbed 4-manifolds, resolutions of isolated singularities in low dimension.
Lecturers: Marco Marengon (Rényi Institute), András Némethi (Rényi Institute), András Stipsicz (Rényi Institute), Vera Vértesi (University of Vienna).

Phase 2 (school)

Phase 2 is aimed at the attendees of phase 1 as well as PhD students and early-stage postdocs. It will consist of 4 parallel topics courses.

Dates: 23-27 January 2023
Location: Rényi Institute
Pre-requisites: Morse homology, Heegaard splittings, Kirby calculus, plumbed 4-manifolds, resolutions of isolated singularities in low dimension.

Courses and lecturers:
1. A knot-theoretic tour of dimension four, by Kyle Hayden (Rutgers University - Newark)
2. Lattice cohomology, by András Némethi (Rényi Institute)
3. Curve singularities and their deformations, by Duco van Straten (Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz)
4. Heegaard Floer homology, by C.-M. Michael Wong (University of Ottawa)

The lectures will end at noon on Friday 27 January. However, there will be an optional TA session on Friday afternoon, which you are encourage to attend if you leave Budapest late on Friday or on Saturday.