Characters In Low Dimensional Topology

This volume contains the proceedings of a conference celebrating the work of Steven Boyer, held from June 2–6, 2018, at Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada. Boyer's contributions to research in low-dimensional geometry and topology, and to the Canadian mathematical community, were recognized during the conference. The articles cover a broad range of topics related, but not limited, to the topology and geometry of 3-manifolds, properties of their fundamental groups and associated representation varieties.

This volume gathers the contributions from the international conference ?Intelligence of Low Dimensional Topology 2006,? which took place in Hiroshima in 2006. The aim of this volume is to promote research in low dimensional topology with the focus on knot theory and related topics. The papers include comprehensive reviews and some latest results.

The motivations, goals and general culture of theoretical physics and mathematics are different. Most practitioners of either discipline have no necessity for most of the time to keep abreast of the latest developments in the other. However on occasion newly developed mathematical concepts become relevant in theoretical physics and the less rigorous theoretical physics framework may prove valuable in understanding and suggesting new theorems and approaches in pure mathematics. Such interdis ciplinary successes invariably cause much rejoicing, as over a prodigal son returned. In recent years the framework provided by quantum field theory and functional in tegrals, developed over half a century in theoretical physics, have proved a fertile soil for developments in low dimensional topology and especially knot theory. Given this background it was particularly pleasing that NATO was able to generously sup port an Advanced Research Workshop to be held in Cambridge, England from 6th to 12th September 1992 with the title Low Dimensional Topology and Quantum Field Theory. Although independently organised this overlapped as far as some speak ers were concerned with a longer term programme with the same title organised by Professor M Green, Professor E Corrigan and Dr R Lickorish. The contents of this proceedings of the workshop demonstrate the breadth of topics now of interest on the interface between theoretical physics and mathematics as well as the sophistication of the mathematical tools required in current theoretical physics.

Volume 2 is divided into three parts: the first 'Surfaces' contains an article by Thurston on earthquakes and by Penner on traintracks. The second part is entitled 'Knots and 3-Manifolds' and the final part 'Kleinian Groups'.

Richard Stanley's work in combinatorics revolutionized and reshaped the subject. His lectures, papers, and books inspired a generation of researchers. In this volume, these researchers explain how Stanley's vision and insights influenced and guided their own perspectives on the subject. As a valuable bonus, this book contains a collection of Stanley's short comments on each of his papers. This book may serve as an introduction to several different threads of ongoing research in combinatorics as well as giving historical perspective.