Gauge Theory Seminar: Mixed Verlinde Categories and Invariants of 4-Dimensional 2-Handlebodies

Name: Gauge Theory Seminar: Mixed Verlinde Categories and Invariants of 4-Dimensional 2-Handlebodies
Start: 2025-12-05T15:30:00-05:00
End: 2025-12-05T16:30:00-05:00
Location: Science Center 507

SEMINARS: GAUGE THEORY AND TOPOLOGY

When: December 5, 2025

3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Where: Science Center 507

Address: 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States

Speaker: Thibault Décoppet (Harvard)

I will review how a skein-theoretic construction of Costantino–Geer–Haïoun–Patureau-Mirand produces an invariant of 4-dimensional 2-handlebodies from a finite unimodular ribbon tensor category. I will then discuss more specifically the invariants associated to the mixed Verlinde categories, which are derived from quotients of the Temperley-Lieb category in positive characteristic. This is based on joint work with Benjamin Haïoun.