TETRAHEDRAL GEOMETRY/TOPOLOGY SEMINAR

  FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT

DATE:               Friday, May 5, 2006                      

LOCATION:     Hempfield High School, Room 213 (directions attached)                

                           followed by dinner at a place to be determined.

4:30 TALK:       David Yetter, Kansas State Univ. and Univ. of Pennsylvania

                           “Topological Quantum Field Theories: What are they? Who ordered that?”

                           Abstract: Topological quantum field theories (TQFT's) were first defined by

                           Sir Michael Atiyah as a way of formalizing various non-rigorous constructions

                           of Witten. Now that category theory has been properly applied, TQFT’s admit

                           a much simpler description than Atiyah originally gave.  A variety of results about

                           TQFT's that relate central ideas of geometric topology such as framed links,

                           surgery, etc. to algebraic structures familiar for other reasons are surprising, and

                           give one the feeling Rabi had when the muon was discovered: "Who ordered that?"

     EVERYONE WELCOME

       PLEASE FORWARD THIS ANNOUNCEMENT TO ANYONE INTERESTED

           The Tetrahedral Geometry/Topology Seminar is sponsored jointly by

Elizabethtown College, Franklin & Marshall College, Lebanon Valley College and Millersville University.