Tue, April 7, 2026
1:50 pm - 2:45 pm
Math Tower (MW) 154
Puttipong Pongtanapaisan
Pitzer College
Title
The Yamada polynomial for spatial graphs in thickened surfaces
Abstract
The Jones polynomial is a powerful invariant of knots and links that has been used not only to distinguish examples, but also to bound measures of complexity such as crossing number and crosscap number. The Yamada polynomial is a corresponding invariant for spatial graphs. In this talk, I will discuss definitions of the Yamada polynomial for spatial graphs in thickened surfaces and show how it can be used to obtain bounds on the complexity of graphs embedded in these manifolds.