Research Seminars @ Illinois

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Tailored for undergraduate researchers, this calendar is a curated list of research seminars at the University of Illinois. Explore the diverse world of research and expand your knowledge through engaging sessions designed to inspire and enlighten.

To have your events added or removed from this calendar, please contact OUR at ugresearch@illinois.edu

Lorenzo Riva (Notre Dame): Higher bordism representations and how to construct them

Event Type: Seminar/Symposium
Sponsor: UIUC math department
Location: Altgeld 241
Date: Oct 8, 2024 11:00 am
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Originating Calendar: Topology Seminar; We learned a long time ago, for example from Thom's work, that there is a connection between bordism theory and homotopy theory that allows us to better understand smooth manifolds. One natural extension of the work of Thom is obtained by studying a higher category of bordisms and its associated representations, which for historical reasons are called (functorial) topological field theories (TFTs). This historical connection to mathematical physics has not ceased to be relevant: there are many classical and quantum field theories of mathematical interest which are conjectured to yield functorial TFTs that yield computable(ish) invariants of manifolds. In this talk we will explore one such example, given by the Rozansky-Witten models [Witten 1997], and see how it works out in a fully coherent (i.e. infinity-categorical) setting.

PS: No knowledge of physics is required!

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