Related papers: The Classification of Two-Dimensional Extended Top…
A modular object in a symmetric monoidal bicategory is a Frobenius algebra object whose product and coproduct are biadjoint, equipped with a braided structure and a compatible twist, satisfying rigidity, ribbon, pivotality, and modularity…
A classical result in quantum topology is that oriented 2-dimensional topological quantum field theories (2-TQFTs) are fully classified by commutative Frobenius algebras. In 2006, Turaev and Turner introduced additional structure on…
Topological quantum field theories (TQFTs) are symmetric monoidal functors out of cobordism categories. In dimension two, oriented TQFTs are famously classified by commutative Frobenius algebras. In the unoriented setting, the…
This lecture series is based on joint work in progress with Shaul Barkan, as well as work in progress of the author. The five sections of these notes correspond to the five lectures, but more details have been added. $2$-dimensional…
We show that the canonical equivalences of categories between 2-dimensional (unoriented) topological quantum field theories valued in a symmetric monoidal category and (extended) commutative Frobenius algebras in that symmetric monoidal…
A $d$-dimensional invertible topological field theory is a functor from the symmetric monoidal $(\infty,n)$-category of $d$-bordisms (embedded into $\mathbb{R}^\infty$ and equipped with a tangential $(X,\xi)$-structure) which lands in the…
We give another definition of two-dimensional extended homotopy field theories (E-HFTs) with aspherical targets and classify them. When the target of E-HFT is chosen to be a $K(G,1)$-space, we classify E-HFTs taking values in the symmetric…
A modular tensor category provides the appropriate data for the construction of a three-dimensional topological field theory. We describe the following analogue for two-dimensional conformal field theories: a 2-category whose objects are…
We give two presentations for bordisms of $S^2$ in the 3-dimensional oriented bordism category $\operatorname{Cob}(3) $, encoding the algebraic structures on $S^2$. After passing through topological field theories, we define two kinds of…
We present a precise definition of extended homotopy quantum field theories and develop an orbifold construction for these theories when the target space is the classifying space of a finite group $G$, i.e. for $G$-equivariant topological…
We study a special sort of 2-dimensional extended Topological Quantum Field Theories (TQFTs) which we call open-closed TQFTs. These are defined on open-closed cobordisms by which we mean smooth compact oriented 2-manifolds with corners that…
This thesis provides an introduction to the various category theory ideas employed in topological quantum field theory. These theories are viewed as symmetric monoidal functors from topological cobordism categories into the category of…
We begin with a brief sketch of what is known and conjectured concerning braided monoidal 2-categories and their applications to 4d topological quantum field theories and 2-tangles (surfaces embedded in 4-dimensional space). Then we give…
It has been common wisdom among mathematicians that Extended Topological Field Theory in dimensions higher than two is naturally formulated in terms of n-categories with n> 1. Recently the physical meaning of these higher categorical…
These notes offer a lightening introduction to topological quantum field theory in its functorial axiomatisation, assuming no or little prior exposure. We lay some emphasis on the connection between the path integral motivation and the…
We introduce the category of singular 2-dimensional cobordisms and show that it admits a completely algebraic description as the free symmetric monoidal category on a twin Frobenius algebra, by providing a description of this category in…
Two-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) can be defined through its correlation functions. These must satisfy certain consistency conditions which arise from the cutting of world sheets along circles or intervals. The construction of a…
These lecture notes are devoted to the theory of equations of associativity describing geometry of moduli spaces of 2D topological field theories. Introduction. Lecture 1. WDVV equations and Frobenius manifolds. {Appendix A.} Polynomial…
We show that any open 2-dimensional topological field theory valued in a symmetric monoidal $\infty$-category (with suitable colimits) extends canonically to an open-closed field theory whose value at the circle is the Hochschild homology…
Motivated by the Moore-Segal axioms for an open-closed topological field theory, we consider planar open string topological field theories. We rigorously define a category 2Thick whose objects and morphisms can be thought of as open strings…