The Interface of Knots and Physics: American Mathematical Society Short Course January 2-3, 1995 San Francisco, California (Ams Short Course Lecture Series)

This book is the result of an AMS Short Course on Knots and Physics that was held in San Francisco (January 1994). The range of the course went beyond knots to the study of invariants of low dimensional manifolds and extensions of this work to four manifolds and to higher dimensions. The authors use ideas and methods of mathematical physics to extract topological information about knots and manifolds. The book features: a basic introduction to knot polynomials in relation to statistical link invariants; and, concise introductions to topological quantum field theories and to the role of knot theory in quantum gravity. ''Knots and Physics'' would be an excellent supplement to a course on algebraic topology or a physics course on field theory

This book is the result of an AMS Short Course on Knots and Physics that was held in San Francisco (January 1994). The range of the course went beyond knots to the study of invariants of low dimensional manifolds and extensions of this work to four manifolds and to higher dimensions. The authors use ideas and methods of mathematical physics to extract topological information about knots and manifolds. Features: A basic introduction to knot polynomials in relation to statistical link invariants. Concise introductions to topological quantum field theories and to the role of knot theory in quantum gravity. Knots and Physics would be an excellent supplement to a course on algebraic topology or a physics course on field theory.

Introduces researchers and graduate students in mathematics or physics to knot polynomials in relation to statistical link invariants, to topological quantum field theories, and to the role of knot theory in quantum gravity. Suitable as a supplement text for a course on algebraic topology or a physics course on field theory. Member price, $31. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or. Content: Knots and statistical mechanics by L. H. Kauffman An introduction to topological field theory by R. J. Lawrence Vassiliev and quantum invariants of braids by D. Bar-Natan The modern legacies of Thomson's atomic vortex theory in classical electrodynamics by S. J. Lomonaco, Jr. Spin networks in nonperturbative quantum gravity by J. C. Baez. Uses ideas and methods of mathematical physics to extract topological information about knots and manifolds. This book features a basic introduction to knot polynomials in relation to statistical link invariants. It presents concise introductions to topological quantum field theories and to the role of knot theory in quantum gravity.