EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: pretalk: TQFTs via fields
Speaker: Kevin Walker
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Abstract:

I'll sketch an alternative to Atiyah-Segal-style axiomatizations of TQFTs.  The main idea is to retain the "fields" part of a physicist's notion of a TQFT.  Intractable path integrals are replaced by tractable (and equivalent) local projections.  The more familiar Atiyah-Segal point of view (functors on cobordism categories and categorified enhancements thereof) falls out as a consequence of simpler axioms, rather than being built into the definition of a TQFT.  If there's time, I'll discuss how this leads to an alternative descriptions of Chern-Simons TQFTs as 3+1-dimensional (rather than 2+1-dimensional) fully extended theories (i.e. a "4-3-2-1-0 theory").