6b018f34_Columbia_UMS_Spring_2015__Title
[Date] Feb 11 [Speaker] Mitchell Faulk [Abstract] I'll try to motivate and introduce the modern formulation of a topological quantum field theory (TQFT), inspired by Segal's and Atiyah's original axioms, as a symmetric monoidal functor from a certain bordism category to the category of vector spaces. For motivation, I'll look at classical field theories in physics, and explain how a topological quantum field theory can be viewed as a ``quantization'' of a certain classical model, called the non-linear sigma model. If time permits, I'll discuss examples of TQFTs and their applications to other areas. [Title] 
The modern formulation of TQFTs
Columbia UMS Spring 2015
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