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Knot Invariants and Chern-Simons Theory

  • Conference paper
European Congress of Mathematics

Part of the book series: Progress in Mathematics ((PM,volume 202))

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Abstract

A brief review of the development of Chern-Simons gauge theory since its relation to knot theory was discovered in 1988 is presented. The presentation is done guided by a dictionary which relates knot theory concepts to quantum field theory ones. From the basic objects in both contexts the quantities leading to knot and link invariants are introduced and analysed. The quantum field theory approaches that have been developed to compute these quantities are reviewed. Perturbative approaches lead to Vassiliev or finite type invariants. Non-perturbative ones lead to polynomial or quantum group invariants. In addition, a brief discussion on open problems and future developments is included.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Física de Partículas, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, E-15706, Spain

    José M. F. Labastida

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  1. José M. F. Labastida
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departament de Matemàtiques, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain

    Carles Casacuberta  & Joan Verdera  & 

  2. Departament d’Algebra i Geometria Facultat de Matemàtiques, Universitat de Barcelona, 08007, Barcelona, Spain

    Rosa Maria Miró-Roig

  3. Departament de Matemàtica Aplicada II, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Sebastià Xambó-Descamps

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© 2001 Springer Basel AG

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Labastida, J.M.F. (2001). Knot Invariants and Chern-Simons Theory. In: Casacuberta, C., Miró-Roig, R.M., Verdera, J., Xambó-Descamps, S. (eds) European Congress of Mathematics. Progress in Mathematics, vol 202. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-8266-8_40

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-8266-8_40

  • Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Basel

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-0348-9496-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-0348-8266-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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