Special Colloquium
Prof. John Francis
Northwestern University
Factorization homology of topological manifolds
Abstract: Factorization homology of topological manifolds
Factorization homology, or the topological chiral homology of Lurie,
is a homology theory for manifolds conceived as a topological analogue
of Beilinson & Drinfeld's algebraic theory of factorization algebras.
It is a common generalization of singular homology, the homology of
compactly supported mapping spaces, and Hochschild homology. I'll
describe an axiomatic characterization of factorization homology,
generalizing the Eilenberg-Steenrod axioms for singular homology, and
give some applications. Work in progress with Kevin Costello aims to
express quantum invariants of knots and 3-manifolds in terms of
factorization homology, which I'll indicate, time permitting.
Tuesday December 6, 2011 at 3:00 PM in SEO 636