Dmitri Nikshych
Abstract:
A classical theorem of Joyal and Street establishes an equivalence between braided categorical groups and quadratic forms. This brings an important geometric insight into the theory of braided fusion categories: one can treat them as non-commutative geometric objects. From this point of view the Drinfeld centers correspond to hyperbolic quadratic forms. We use this observation to define a categorical analogue of the classical Witt group of quadratic forms. It turns out that the categorical Witt group W is no longer a torsion group. We discuss the structure of W and its generalizations: the super and equivariant categorical Witt groups. This talk is based on joint works with Alexei Davydov, Victor Ostrik, and Michael Mueger.
The talk will also be streamed here.
University of New Hampshire
Wed, 31/05/2017 - 2:00pm to 3:00pm
RC-4082, The Red Centre, UNSW