Abstract:
According to a theorem of Giroux (and building on the work of Thurston-Winkelnkemper),
there is a 1-1 correspondence between isotopy classes of contact structures and equivalence classes
 of open book decompositions. We give partial results towards calculating the contact homology
 of a contact structure (M, \xi) (in dimension 3) which is supported by an open book with
pseudo-Anosov monodromy. This is joint work with Vincent Colin.

  March 12th, Wednesday, 5:00-6:00 pm