Topology Atlas | Conferences

KNOTS in WASHINGTON XII Conference on Knot Theory and its Ramifications
May 10-12, 2001
George Washington University
Washington, DC, USA

Organizers
Dubravko Ivansic, Ilya Kofman, Jozef H. Przytycki, Yongwu Rong, Akira Yasuhara

Conference Homepage


Frobenius algebras, 2-dimensional surfaces ... and knots?
by
Lowell Abrams
George Washington University

A two-dimensional topological quantum field theory (tqft) provides a topological invariant of surfaces which is compatible with cutting and gluing operations. We describe a new characterization of Frobenius algebras, and use it to show that 2-d tqft's correspond to Frobenius algebras. We close with remarks directed towards the simple question "are Frobenius algebras useful in knot theory?"

Date received: May 9, 2001

Copyright © 2001 by the author(s). The author(s) of this work and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Topology Atlas. Document # cahj-12.