Related papers: Twisted curve geometry underlying topological inva…

The classification of electron systems according to their topology has been at the forefront of condensed matter research in recent years. It has been found that systems of the same symmetry, previously thought of as equivalent, may in fact…

It is well known that the SU(2)-gauge invariant phase space of loop gravity can be represented in terms of twisted geometries. These are piecewise-linear-flat geometries obtained by gluing together polyhedra, but the resulting geometries…

We define an invariant of graphs embedded in a three-manifold and a partition function for 2-complexes embedded in a triangulated four-manifold by specifying the values of variables in the Turaev-Viro and Crane-Yetter state sum models. In…

In his influential work, Thurston introduced a norm on the second homology group of compact orientable 3-manifolds M, which by duality also determines a dual norm on the second cohomology group. A natural question, initiated by Thurston, is…

This is a survey on Reidemeister torsion for hyperbolic three-manifolds of finite volume. Torsions are viewed as topological invariants and also as functions on the variety of representations in $\operatorname{ SL}_2(\mathbb C)$. In both…

This paper introduces techniques for computing a variety of numerical invariants associated to a Legendrian knot in a contact manifold presented by an open book with a Morse structure. Such a Legendrian knot admits a front projection to the…

The Gauss-Bonnet theorem for a polyhedron (a union of finitely many compact convex polytopes) in $n$-dimensional Euclidean space expresses the Euler characteristic of the polyhedron as a sum of certain curvatures, which are different from…

J.H.C. Whitehead introduced the concept of crossed modules in the early 20th century. These crossed modules are crucial for algebraic models of 2-type homotopy, which involve connected spaces with no higher than second-degree homotopy…

We study a one-parameter family of time-reversible Hamiltonian vector fields in $\mathbb{R}^4$, which has received great attention in the literature. On the one hand, it is due to the role it plays in the context of certain applications in…

We introduce and study strongly invertible Legendrian links in the standard contact three-dimensional space. We establish the equivariant analogs of basic results separately well-known for strongly invertible and Legendrian links, i.e. the…

We construct a combinatorial invariant of 3-orbifolds with singular set a link that generalizes the Turaev torsion invariant of 3-manifolds. We give several gluing formulas from which we derive two consequences. The first is an…

Topological transforms have been very useful in statistical analysis of shapes or surfaces without restrictions that the shapes are diffeomorphic and requiring the estimation of correspondence maps. In this paper we introduce two…

Finite-order invariants of knots in arbitrary 3-manifolds (including non-orientable ones) are constructed and studied by methods of the topology of discriminant sets. Obstructions to the integrability of admissible weight systems to…

We revisit the velocity-dependent one-scale model for topological defect evolution, and present a new alternative formulation in terms of a physical (rather than invariant) characteristic length scale. While the two approaches are…

The 2-twist spun trefoil is an example of a sphere that is knotted in 4-dimensional space. Here this example is shown to be distinct from the same sphere with the reversed orientation. To demonstrate this fact a state-sum invariant for…

We elucidate the vector space (twisted relative cohomology) that is Poincar\'e dual to the vector space of Feynman integrals (twisted cohomology) in general spacetime dimension. The pairing between these spaces - an algebraic invariant…

The classical world structures borne by spacetimes endowed with torsionful affinities are reviewed. Subsequently, the definition and symmetry properties of a typical pair of Witten curvature spinors for such spacetimes are exhibited along…

The goal of this paper is to give a new proof of a theorem of Meng and Taubes that identifies the Seiberg-Witten invariants of 3-manifolds with Milnor torsion. The point of view here will be that of topological quantum field theory. In…

In 1833 Gauss defined the linking number of two disjoint curves in 3-space. For open curves this double integral over the parameterised curves is real-valued and invariant modulo rigid motions or isometries that preserve distances between…

I review some recent results on four-manifold invariants which have been obtained in the context of topological quantum field theory. I focus on three different aspects: (a) the computation of correlation functions, which give explicit…