Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

This talk will be a partial survey of the first questions in the complexity theory of geometric topology problems. What is the complexity, or what are known complexity bounds, for distinguishing n-manifolds for various n? For distinguishing knots? For recognizing a sphere, or the unknot? The survey will be a warmup to my own contribution, which is the fact that knottedness is in NP, assuming the generalized Riemann hypothesis.