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The Fundamental Quandle and Braiding in Categories

Student-Run Research Seminar

Speaker: Jennifer Brown, UC Davis
Related Webpage: https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~brown/
Location: Zoom
Start time: Thu, Jan 21 2021, 11:00AM

The fundamental quandle of a tangle complement is a generalization of its fundamental group. Instead of considering loops up to homotopy, one focuses on open-ended paths which "terminate" on the tangle. I will introduce this powerful object, show how it relates to the appearance of (holonomy) braided categories, and how this machinery has been put to use in the construction of non-abelian quantum invariants.



Refreshments to be brought by attendees.