Mathematics 253Z
Link homology and foams (226279)
William Ballinger2025 Fall (4 Credits)
Schedule: MW 0130 PM - 0245 PM
Instructor Permissions: None
Enrollment Cap: n/a
This course will describe categorifications of the Reshetikhin-Turaev invariant of links and their topological applications, both as originally developed by Khovanov and Rozansky via matrix factorizations and via the Roberts-Wagner foam evaluation. Particular goals will be to study the general theory of matrix factorizations in some detail and understand the connections between these two approaches. Once this background is established, we will discuss functoriality under cobordisms, and the many resulting obstructions to concordance.
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