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MSRI's 25th Anniversary Celebration |
| January 26, 2008 to January 30, 2008 |
| Organized By: Alejandro Adem, Isadore Singer, and Robert Bryant. |
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| Return to Workshop Description |
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Remarks on Chern-Simons theory
Sunday January 27, 2008
03:30PM - 04:30PM
Speakers:
Daniel Freed
Abstract:
The Chern-Simons invariant was introduced into differential geometry in the early 1970s. Its quantum embodiment at the end of the 1980s quickly became a poster child quantum field theory for mathematicians: not only does it place knot polynomials in a manifestly three-dimensional context, but it also reveals many algebraic and topological aspects of quantum field theory in general. The mathematics involved strays far from its differential-geometric origins. I will review some developments in this area and use Chern-Simons theory as a window into the broader math-physics interaction.
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