Department of

Mathematics

Seminar Calendar
for events the day of Tuesday, December 17, 2013.

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Tuesday, December 17, 2013

11:30 am in 243 Altgeld Hall,Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Sigma models, elliptic cohomology and the Witten genus

Dan Berwick-Evans (Stanford University)

Abstract: For over 25 years there has been a mysterious relationship between 2-dimensional quantum field theories and elliptic cohomology. I will describe one precise connection wherein the geometry of a particular 2-dimensional field theory leads to a model for elliptic cohomology with complex coefficients. One upshot of this perspective is a construction of a manifold invariant called the Witten genus using ideas motivated by the physics of perturbative quantization.