Wednesday, April 25th, 2018
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm, in Science 2-063

Costel-Gabriel Bontea

UNH

Tensor Categories and Hopf algebras

Abstract: Tensor categories are mathematical structures that appear in various fields of mathematics (representation theory, low-dimensional topology, operator algebras, homotopy theory, etc.). They also provide good models in mathematical physics (conformal field theory, quantum statistics) and theoretical computer science (quantum computation). In this talk I will discuss tensor categories from the viewpoint of Hopf algebras and show how our knowledge of the latter can aid us in our understanding of the former. More specifically, I will present a recent result on the classification of pointed braided finite tensor categories admitting a fiber functor. This is based on joint work with Dmitry Nikshych.