An Algebra of Arcs and Knots on a Surface (Helen Wong, CMC)
Argue Auditorium, Pomona College 610 N. College Ave., Claremont, CA, United StatesThe end of the previous century saw radical changes to three-dimensional topology, which arose from two completely different approaches. One breakthrough came from Bill Thurston's introduction of hyperbolic geometry into the field. The second one came from the Vaughn Jones’s discovery of a new "quantum" invariant for knots that brought in insight and techniques from […]