SMS scnews item created by Catherine Meister at Wed 4 Mar 2026 1107
Type: Seminar
Distribution: World
Expiry: 11 Mar 2026
Calendar1: 6 Mar 2026 0900-1000
CalLoc1: SMRI Seminar Room (A12 Macleay Room 301)
CalTitle1: The Jones polynomial, the braid group and computers
Auth: cmeister@10.136.91.14 (cmei0631) in SMS-SAML
Informal Friday Seminar: Williamson
The Jones polynomial, the braid group and computers
Geordie Williamson, University of Sydney
Informal Friday Seminar, 6th March 2026
9 am – 11 am, SMRI Seminar Room (A12 Macleay Room 301)
Abstract: One of my favourite open problems is whether the Jones polynomial detects the unknot (or not!). A related question is whether the Jones representation of the braid group if faithful. By work of Jones, Bigelow and Ito one knows that a negative answer to the faithfulness question would imply the existence of a knot which the Jones polynomial thinks is the unknot, but is not. I'll describe various attempts at attacking this problem via computational methods. I think it is a wonderful hard problem to be aware of at the interface of AI and pure mathematics. It might even be resolved in our lifetimes!
The Informal Friday Seminar is a space where members of our research group can explain interesting things to each other in a casual setting.
The rules of the seminar are the following:
- Any question/additional explanation from the audience is allowed.
- Ego out the window.
- Examples, examples, examples.
The seminar is intended to be conversational, so come ready to engage. If you choose to give an IFS talk, it's important to know that part of the IFS philosophy is that learning is not linear. In other words, it if perfectly acceptable to give a talk that is a prerequisite for a talk that already happened. For IFS updates, please see the IFS website