OWU, Tuesday, March 1, 2011. 12:15 --- 12:55 PM

Title: Physics and mathematics of knots.

Abstract.

Mathematical knot theory studies possible types of a circular rope tied up to 
a knot. Mathematicians are interested in quantities which do not change if 
we move the rope around. They called such a quantity knot invariant. It could 
be a number, a polynomial, or any other mathematically defined structure. I will 
explain how some ideas from statistical physics, the Potts and Ising models, 
can be used to find a famous knot invariant, the Jones polynomial. The talk 
should be accessible to undergraduates with some mathematical background. 
Standard calculus courses and some introductory combinatorics of graphs should 
be enough to understand the most part of the presentation.