Dave Rose : Graphical calculus and quantum knot invariants
At first glance, knot theory and representation theory seem to be unrelated fields of mathematics. In fact, this is not the case: in the early 90's, Reshetikhin and Turaev proved that knot invariants (and 3-manifold invariants) can be derived via the representation theory of quantum groups. The key link (no pun intended) between these areas is the observation that both the category of tangles and the category of representations share many similar structural features. In this talk we will explore these ideas, and if time permits, their categorified counterparts. If things like categories scare you, fear not; as the title suggests, all categories (and constructions on them) we encounter will have pictorial descriptions. In fact, no knowledge of category theory or representation theory is assumed. At the same time, if you have indeed taken Math 253, then this talk will provide context for the material in that course.
- Category: Graduate/Faculty Seminar
- Duration: 01:34:53
- Date: December 10, 2010 at 4:25 PM
- Views: 126
- Tags: seminar, Graduate/faculty Seminar
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