SMS scnews item created by Boris Lishak at Fri 28 Sep 2018 1255
Type: Seminar
Distribution: World
Calendar1: 3 Oct 2018 1200-1300
CalLoc1: Carslaw 535A
CalTitle1: Halacheva -- Tangles and Alexander type invariants
Auth: borisl@dora.maths.usyd.edu.au

Geometry and Topology Seminar

Tangles and Alexander type invariants

Iva Halacheva (Melbourne)

Please join us for lunch at 1 p.m.

Abstract:

The Alexander polynomial is a classical invariant of knots and links in low dimensional topology, originally introduced by James Alexander and later extended to a multivariable invariant, MVA, by Torres. We study a generalization of the MVA by Archibald to virtual tangles (i.e. tangles in thickened surfaces) in the context of circuit algebras, construct a reduced version and relate it to an invariant defined by Bar-Natan in the context of metamonoids. It reduces to the Burau and Gassner representations on braids and admits a partially defined trace operation.