Related papers: Open 2D TFTs admit initial open-closed extensions
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…
It is well-known that classical two-dimensional topological field theories are in one-to-one correspondence with commutative Frobenius algebras. An important extension of classical two-dimensional topological field theories is provided by…
In this expository paper we discuss a project regarding the string topology of a manifold, that was inspired by recent work of Moore-Segal, Costello, and Hopkins and Lurie, on "open-closed topological conformal field theories". Given a…
In the Lagrangian approach to 2-dimensional sigma models, B-fields and D-branes contribute topological terms to the action of worldsheets of both open and closed strings. We show that these terms naturally fit into a 2-dimensional, smooth…
We introduce a homology theory whose Euler characteristics counts ASD bundles over four dimensional co-associative submanifolds in (almost) G_2 manifolds. As a TQFT, in relative situations, we have the Fukaya-Floer category of Lagrangians…
We define the notions of unital/counital/biunital infinitesimal anti-symmetric bialgebras and coFrobenius bialgebras and discuss their algebraic properties. We also define the notion of a graded 2D open-closed TQFT. These structures arise…
The goal of this paper is to introduce some of the major ideas behind extended topological quantum field theories with an emphasis on explicit examples and calculations. The statement of the Cobordism Hypothesis is explained and immediately…
We compute the classifying space of the surface category $h\mathrm{Bord}_2$ whose objects are closed oriented $1$-manifolds and whose morphisms are diffeomorphism classes of oriented surface bordisms, and show that it is rationally…
This article presents families of 7-dimensional closed and simply-connected manifolds and fold maps on them such that squares of 2nd integral cohomology classes may not be divisible by 2. Fold maps are higher dimensional versions of Morse…
I describe extended gradings of open topological field theories in two dimensions in terms of skew categories, proving a result which alows one to translate between the formalism of graded open 2d TFTs and equivariant cyclic categories. As…
We present a version of higher Hochschild homology for spaces equipped with principal bundles for a structure group $G$. As coefficients, we allow $E_\infty$-algebras with $G$-action. For this homology theory, we establish an equivariant…
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…
The homotopy category of the bordism category $hBord_d$ has as objects closed oriented $(d-1)$-manifolds and as morphisms diffeomorphism classes of $d$-dimensional bordisms. Using a new fiber sequence for bordism categories, we compute the…
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…
In this article, we establish a connection between two models for $r$-spin structures on surfaces: the marked PLCW decompositions of Novak and Runkel-Szegedy, and the structured graphs of Dyckerhoff-Kapranov. We use these models to describe…
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 show that dualising transfer maps in Hochschild cohomology of symmetric algebras over complete discrete valuations rings commutes with Tate duality. This is analogous to a similar result for Tate cohomology of symmetric algebras over…
We prove that unitary two-dimensional topological field theories are uniquely characterized by $n$ positive real numbers $\lambda _1,\ldots \lambda _n$ which can be regarded as the eigenvalues of a hermitean handle creation operator. The…
In this manuscript, we consider cobordism operations in the $2$-dimensional labeled open-closed topological quantum field theory for the classifying space of a connected compact Lie group in the sense of Guldberg. In particular, it is…
In this paper we extend our correlation functions to the open/closed case. This gives rise to actions of an open/closed version of the Sullivan PROP as well as an action of the relevant moduli space. There are several unexpected structures…