This is part of an informal seminar series to be given by Mr. Jaehong Kim, who has been studying the book "Hodge theory and Complex Algebraic Geometry Vol 1 by Claire Voisin" for a few months. It will summarize about 70-80% of the book.

The analysis on the limiting behavior of solution is pivotal for equations in geometric analysis, mathematical physics and application in optimization. In 80s, Rene Thom conjectured that if an analytic gradient flow has a limit, then it approaches to the limit along a unique asymptotic direction. This represents a next-order question following the seminal works by Lojasiewicz and L. Simon. In 2000, Thom's conjecture was affirmatively proved by Kurdyka, Mostowski, and Parusinski for finite dimensional gradient flows. In this first part, we will discuss about the basics about theory of Lojasiewicz concerning the uniqueness of limits. Then we explore vast applications in PDEs which were initiated by Leon Simon.

Following the brief introduction to Lojasiewicz's theory in the first part, in the second part we discuss Thom's gradient conjecture and our recent joint work with Pei-Ken Hung where we generalized this conjecture to the class of PDEs. The result classifies the next-order asymptotics by revealing both the rate and the direction of convergence to the limit. Finally we talk about possible future applications and working directions.

In the 1980's Casson and Gordon produced the first non slice knots which are trivial in Levine's algebraic concordance group, and in 2003 Cochran-Orr-Teichner produced the first no slice knots undetectable by Casson and Gordon's invariants. They do so by producing a filtration of the concordance group by subgroups a knot in the 1.5th term of this filtration has vanishing Casson-Gordon invariants. Since then this work has been central to the study of knot concordance. We will introduce this filtration and review just enough of the theory of L^2 homology to prove that the successive quotients of this filtration are nontrivial.

Knot homology theories revolutionized the study of knots and links, much like (simplicial or singular) homology theory revolutionized the study of topological spaces. One of the major knot homology theories, Khovanov homology, was introduced by M. Khovanov in 2000 as a "categorification of the Jones polynomial." One notable feature of Khovanov homology is its ability to detect the unknot, a feature not known to be possessed by the Jones polynomial. Recently, it has found notable applications in low-dimensional topology, including the detection of exotic surfaces in the 4-ball. Day 1: Jones polynomial and its categorification.

Knot homology theories revolutionized the study of knots and links, much like (simplicial or singular) homology theory revolutionized the study of topological spaces. One of the major knot homology theories, Khovanov homology, was introduced by M. Khovanov in 2000 as a "categorification of the Jones polynomial." One notable feature of Khovanov homology is its ability to detect the unknot, a feature not known to be possessed by the Jones polynomial. Recently, it has found notable applications in low-dimensional topology, including the detection of exotic surfaces in the 4-ball. Day 2: Numerical invariants from Khovanov homology and their applications.

Knot homology theories revolutionized the study of knots and links, much like (simplicial or singular) homology theory revolutionized the study of topological spaces. One of the major knot homology theories, Khovanov homology, was introduced by M. Khovanov in 2000 as a "categorification of the Jones polynomial." One notable feature of Khovanov homology is its ability to detect the unknot, a feature not known to be possessed by the Jones polynomial. Recently, it has found notable applications in low-dimensional topology, including the detection of exotic surfaces in the 4-ball. Day 3: Recent developments of Khovanov homology and its applications to low-dimensional topology.