• Gabriel Kerr: Relations in the symplectic mapping class group
    Various presentations of the mapping class group of curves have been developed in the past several decades. Certain standard relations which are supported on open subsets occur in all cases. I will illustrate in this talk how these types of group presentations are within reach for certain higher dimensional symplectic manifolds by employing techniques from toric geometry and stratified Morse theory. If time permits, I will explain applications of this approach to homological mirror symmetry.