Event
Ying Hu, CIRGET
Left-orderable 3-manifold groups, taut foliations and contact structures.
A group G is called left-orderable if there exists a strict total order on G which is invariant under the left-multiplication. Given an irreducible 3-manifold M, it is conjectured that the following three statements are equivalent: 1) $pi_1(M)$ is left-orderable. 2) M admits a co-orientable taut foliation. 3) M is not Heegaard Floer ``minimal''. The implication from 2) to 3) was established by utilizing a contact structure that is close to a given taut foliation. In this talk, I will discuss how contact structures could also play a role in studying the interconnection between 1) and 2) in general, and show applications to branched covers of the 3-sphere. This is joint work with Steve Boyer.