The Category Theory of Quantum Field Theory

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• Jamie Vicary, Oxford University Computing Laboratory
• Tuesday 22 February 2011, 14:15-15:15
• MR3, Centre for Mathematical Sciences.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Nathan Bowler.

The foundations of quantum field theory are murky, and we are very far from finding a clear mathematical perspective from which to understand them. However, in the regime where physics is ‘topological’, it is profoundly clear that the correct perspective is higher category theory. I will talk about why this is, and describe some recent results on the classification of topological quantum field theories that relies directly on cutting-edge pure-categorical technology. You don’t need to know any quantum field theory to understand this talk!

This talk is part of the Category Theory Seminar series.

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