Junior Geometry and QFT Seminar

We will explore the ideas and axioms of topological quantum field theories (TQFTs), starting with how the idea of a TQFT emerges from quantum mechanics. Following this we will look at the definition of a TQFT and look at what each part of the definition means (so we will talk about cobordisms, symmetric monoidal categories, etc) as well as their (maybe vague) physical interpretation. We will look at a couple nice results of simpler TQFTs (classification of one-dimensional and two-dimensional TQFTs) and finally talk about some reasons to care about TQFTs.