Khovanov homology and the symplectic geometry of nilpotent slices
                         Paul Seidel and Ivan Smith

Abstract:
  I will explain how one can use the symplectic geometry of certain manifolds which appear in Lie theory to define an invariant of oriented links. The relevant manifolds are transverse slices to certain nilpotent orbits inside sl_2m, and intersections of those with regular semisimple orbits. Conjecturally, this is a version of Khovanov's combinatorially defined homology theory.

For a relevant 56-page arXiv preprint, see A link invariant from the symplectic geometry of nilpotent slices.