Braid positivity, taut foliations, and unknot detection

The L-space conjecture predicts that three seemingly different ways to measure the “size” of a 3-manifold are equivalent. In particular, it predicts that a manifold with the “extra” geometric structure of a taut foliation also has “extra” Heegaard Floer homology (meaning that the manifold is not an L-space). In this talk, I’ll discuss the motivation for this conjecture, and describe some results which produce taut foliations by leveraging special properties of positive braid knots. Along the way, we will produce some novel obstructions to braid positivity. I will not assume any background knowledge in Floer or foliation theories; all are welcome!