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Skein Categories and Factorization Homology

Algebraic Geometry and Number Theory

Speaker: Jennifer Brown, Edinburgh
Related Webpage: TBA
Location: 3204 QMAP
Start time: Tue, Jan 21 2025, 4:10PM

Skein categories and factorization homology are both tools for studying the moduli space of flat connections, motivated in part by the quest to study topological quantum field theories (TQFTs). Skein theory is built on the diagrammatics of braided tensor categories, while factorization homology is a method for extending functors defined on full subcategories. In certain circumstances, they're equivalent. In this talk we'll introduce both approaches and discuss their equivalence. Time permitting we will explain what needs to change in order for this equivalence to hold in non-semisimple settings.  



TBA