IAS Physics Group Meeting

This group meeting will be presented in-person in the Bloomberg Lecture Hall at the IAS and on Zoom. The Zoom link will be provided in the email announcement.

For contact-tracing purposes all off-campus attendees must register for this seminar: 
REGISTRATION FORM

All in-person attendees must be fully vaccinated, including a booster dose, and masks are optional in all indoor spaces. Additionally, all off-campus attendees are required to upload proof of vaccination that includes a booster dose via the IAS CrowdPass App . 

Abstract: In the 1980's, Atiyah introduced a mathematical definition of the notion of a topological quantum field theory. In this talk, I'll recall Atiyah's definition and explain the motivation for the more elaborate notion of an extended topological field theory. I'll then discuss the classification of extended topological field theories, following ideas of Baez and Dolan.