Speaker: Daniel Herrera Correa
University of Notre Dame
Will give a Graduate Student Topology Seminar entitled:
Mathai-Quillen formalism for TQFTs
Abstract: Varghese Mathai and Daniel Quillen introduced representatives of the Thom and Euler classes for a vector bundle in the de Rham cohomology. These representatives were refined by Michael Atiyah and Lisa Jeffrey in the presence of group actions on the vector bundle, outlining the Mathai-Quillen formalism. The main purpose of this refinement was to explain how many interesting examples of topological QFTs, proposed by Edward Witten using physics arguments such as supersymmetry, can be naturally explained as given by the Mathai-Quillen representative of the formal Euler class of an infinite-dimensional vector bundle. If time allows, we will discuss how this idea is applied to Donaldson's theory of 4-manifold invariants.
Date: 10-06-2026
Time: 12:15 am
Location: 258 Hurley Hall