This is an introductory mini-course for low-dimensional topology. The outline is:

1. Knots, Dehn surgery, and Property P conjecture (any nontrivial Dehn surgery on a nontrivial knot doesn't give the 3-sphere);

2. Fundamental group, Wirtinger presentation, and Poincare conjecture (every closed 3-manifold with trivial fundamental group is homeomorphic to the 3-sphere);

3. SU(2) representations of knot groups and ideas of proof of Property P conjecture.

The preliminaries are definitions of groups, group homomorphisms, and complex matrices. It is better but not necessary to be familiar with manifolds.

Time: 19:00-20:00, Oct.19(Tue), 20(Wed), 27(Wed).