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Constructing oriented TQFTs from twisted pivotal tensor categories

GEOMETRY AND QUANTUM THEORY

When: February 19, 2026
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Where: CMSA, 20 Garden St, G10
Address: 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
Speaker: William Stewart (Technical University of Munich)

The cobordism hypothesis classifies n-dimensional oriented TQFTs in terms of SO(n) homotopy fixed point data. An SO(2) homotopy fixed point structure on a finite tensor category gives rise to a twisted pivotal structure (a more general notion than a pivotal structure). In this talk, I will illustrate how the usual skein theory (also called string nets) of a pivotal tensor category can be generalized to the twisted pivotal setting, yielding new 2d oriented TQFTs. This is joint work with Ben Haioun and Filippos Sytilidis.