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Math-Physics Joint Seminar

Thursday, October 26, 2017 - 4:30pm

Luigi Tizzano

Uppsala University

Location

University of Pennsylvania

DRL 4C2

Integrable lattice models in 1+1 dimensions have been a topic of much fascination in physics since the early days of quantum mechanics. Recently, a work by Costello has offered a new perspective in which these  models are understood in terms of a 4D topological gauge theory. An interesting aspect of this proposal is the close connection with 3D  Chern-Simons theory and knot invariants. I will explain how to motivate  the 4D topological theory using string dualities and higher dimensional  gauge theories. I will also describe how this construction shares som  features with the derivation of knot homology from gauge theory proposed by Witten.