Ribbon graph formulation of CohFT and 2D TQFT
Date:
Wednesday, March 22, 2017 13:45 - 16:45
Speaker:
Motohico Mulase (University of California)
Location:
Mondi Seminar Room 2, Central Building
Series:
Mathematics and CS Seminar
Host:
Tamas Hausel
Contact:
DE ANTONI Jessica
We present a new (or an unconventional) formulation of cohomological field theories and 2-dimensional topological quantum field theories, based on the category of ribbon graphs. In this formulation, operations on graphs (which are known by other names in the study of Hurwitz numbers and moduli of hyperbolic surfaces) are represented by natural transformations in a functor category. Our motivation lies in understanding relations between CohFT, TQFT, and topological recursion. The talk is based on my joint papers with Olivia Dumitrescu.