Related papers: Wilson surfaces and higher dimensional knot invari…
Knot and link polynomials are topological invariants calculated from the expectation value of loop operators in topological field theories. In 3D Chern-Simons theory, these invariants can be found from crossing and braiding matrices of…
We make an exact field theoretical computation of the conformal anomaly for two-dimensional submanifold observables. By including a scalar field in the definition for the Wilson surface, as appropriate for a spontaneously broken A_1 theory,…
We extend knot contact homology to a theory over the ring $\mathbb{Z}[\lambda^{\pm 1},\mu^{\pm 1}]$, with the invariant given topologically and combinatorially. The improved invariant, which is defined for framed knots in $S^3$ and can be…
We present a summary of the applications of duality to Donaldson-Witten theory and its generalizations. Special emphasis is made on the computation of Donaldson invariants in terms of Seiberg-Witten invariants using recent results in N=2…
We define an invariant of welded virtual knots from each finite crossed module by considering crossed module invariants of ribbon knotted surfaces which are naturally associated with them. We elucidate that the invariants obtained are non…
In this work we describe a new invariant of virtual knots. We show that this transcendental function invariant generalizes several polynomial invariants of virtual knots, such as the writhe polynomial, the affine index polynomial and the…
Although most knots are nonalternating, modern research in knot theory seems to focus on alternating knots. We consider here nonalternating knots and their properties. Specifically, we show certain classes of knots have nontrivial Jones…
This paper extends the construction of invariants for virtual knots to virtual long knots and introduces two new invariant modules of virtual long knots. Several interesting features are described that distinguish virtual long knots from…
Given a group endowed with a Z/2-valued morphism we associate a Gauss diagram theory, and show that for a particular choice of the group these diagrams encode faithfully virtual knots on a given arbitrary surface. This theory contains all…
Chern-Simons gauge theory for compact semisimple groups is analyzed from a perturbation theory point of view. The general form of the perturbative series expansion of a Wilson line is presented in terms of the Casimir operators of the gauge…
Twisted Alexander invariants of knots are well-defined up to multiplication of units. We get rid of this multiplicative ambiguity via a combinatorial method and define normalized twisted Alexander invariants. We then show that the…
Topological quantum field theories can be used to probe topological properties of low dimensional manifolds. A class of these theories known as Schwarz type theories, comprise of Chern-Simons theories and BF theories. In three dimensions…
Yang-Mills theory in the first order formalism appears as the deformation of a topological field theory, the pure BF theory. In this approach new non local observables are inherited from the topological theory and the operators entering the…
We describe a family of hyperbolic knots whose character variety contain exactly two distinct components of characters of irreducible representations. The intersection points between the components carry rich topological information. In…
Two-dimensional BF theory with infinitely many higher spin fields is proposed. It is interpreted as the AdS(2) higher spin gravity model describing a consistent interaction between local fields in AdS(2) space including gravitational field,…
This short survey, which was written to accompany a minicourse at the BIRS conference "Topology in dimension 4.5", concerns invariants of knotted $2$-spheres in $S^4$, also known as $2$-knots. It covers invariants extracted from the…
Observable structures of a topological field theory of AKSZ type are analyzed. From a double (or multiple) complex structure of observable algebras, new topological invariants are constructed. Especially, Donaldson polynomial invariants and…
A practical implementation of the non-Abelian Stokes theorem for topologically nontrivial loops (knots) with possible intersections is proposed.
A polynomial is presented that models a topological knot in a unique manner. It distinguishes all types of knots including the orientation and has a group theory interpretation. The topologies may be labeled via a number, which upon a base…
We exhibit here, for a scalar theory, an apparently non-trivial Wilsonian fixed point, which surprisingly describes a free theory. This modest note is an observation which can be of interest in the framework of functional methods in Quantum…