Members’ Seminar

Classically, the Gauss-Manin connection relates the de Rham cohomology of different smooth fibres of a map. Its point of origin is the fact that vector fields act trivially on de Rham cohomology (the Cartan homotopy formula). That fact has an analogue in noncommutative geometry, leading to a corresponding generalization of the Gauss-Manin connection, due to Getzler. In this talk, I will explain how to understand such connections from a more geometric viewpoint, using a TQFT (topological quantum field theory) formalism.