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What's the best reference for actual formulas for RT invariants?

If one really wants to understand the formulas for how to construct the Reshetikhin-Turaev 3-manifold invariants coming from quantum groups in terms of R-matrices and such, what's the best reference ...
3k views

Homological Algebra for Commutative Monoids?

Homological algebra for abelian groups is a standard tool in many fields of mathematics. How much carries over to the setting of commutative monoids (with unit)? It seems like there is a notion of ...
384 views

When does a transitive action of a profinite group have an infinite orbit?

That is: suppose G is a profinite group acting 1-transitively (but maybe not regularly) on a set X. Is there a reasonable criterion for when there is a g in G and a point a in X such that the g-orbit ...
1k views

What is an example of a smooth variety over a finite field F_p which does not lift to Z_p?

Somebody answered this question instead of the question here, so I am asking this with the hope that they will cut and paste their solution.
259 views

Request for info on the space of commuting matrices preserving a flag.

Fix a flag of subspaces V1 in V2 in V3, etc. all in Cn. Consider the space of pairs of commuting linear transformations A and B such that: A preserves the flag (i.e. A(Vi) is in Vi), and B strictly ...
2k views

Existence of (smooth) models

Hi everyone, let X be a variety over a field k, S an integral scheme such that the function field K of S is contained in k. An S-scheme X is called model of X/k if X x_S k = X, i.e. if the generic ...
5k views

Does homology have a coproduct?

Standard algebraic topology defines the cup product which defines a ring structure on the cohomology of a topological space. This ring structure arises because cohomology is a contravariant functor ...
790 views

Generalized Teichmuller representatives

Fix a prime $p$. The Teichmuller representative associated to a $p$-adic integer $a$ is the unique root of $x^p - x$ in $Z_p$ congruent to $a$ mod $p$. One can identify this representative with the ...
1k views

What is an example of a smooth variety over a finite field F_p which does not embed into a smooth scheme over Z_p?

Such an example of course could not be projective and would not itself lift to Z_p. The context is that one can compute p-adic cohomology of a variety X over a finite field F_p via the cohomology of ...
1k views

How is tropicalization like taking the classical limit?

There is a folk — I can't call it a theorem — "fact" that the mathematical relationship between Complex and Tropical geometry is analogous to the physical relationship between Quantum and ...
2k views

Does a scheme have a “separification”?

Background: (1) If C and D are categories and there is a forgetful functor U:C→D, then a C-ification functor F:D→C is an adjoint to U. For example, the (left) adjoint to the forgetful ...
7k views

“A gentleman never chooses a basis.”

Around these parts, the aphorism "A gentleman never chooses a basis," has become popular. Question. Is there a gentlemanly way to prove that the natural map from $V$ to $V^{**}$ is surjective if $V$...
69k views

Reading list for basic differential geometry?

I'd like to ask if people can point me towards good books or notes to learn some basic differential geometry. I work in representation theory mostly and have found that sometimes my background is ...
2k views

What's the right way to think about “anomalies” in 3d TQFTs?

3d TQFTs constructed from modular tensor categories don't in general give an honest 3d TQFT, instead they have an "anomaly." My vague understanding from Kevin Walker's talks and from skimming Freed-...
2k views

Do all 3D TQFTs come from Reshetikhin-Turaev?

The Reshetikhin-Turaev construction take as input a Modular Tensor Category (MTC) and spits out a 3D TQFT. I've been told that the other main construction of 3D TQFTs, the Turaev-Viro State sum ...
7k views

Deformation theory and differential graded Lie algebras

There is supposed to be a philosophy that, at least over a field of characteristic zero, every "deformation problem" is somehow "governed" or "controlled" by a differential graded Lie algebra. See for ...
19k views

Motivating the Laplace transform definition

In undergraduate differential equations it's usual to deal with the Laplace transform to reduce the differential equation problem to an algebraic problem. The Laplace transform of a function $f(t)$, ...
2k views

Deligne's conjecture (the little discs operad one)

Deligne's conjecture states that the Hochschild cochain complex of an A-infinity algebra is an algebra over the operad of chains on the topological little discs operad. Of course the conjecture has ...
2k views

Derived categories and homotopy categories

There are two constructions that look quite similar to me: the derived category of an abelian category, and the homotopy category of a model category. Is there any explicit relationship between these ...
1k views

What is the base change in number theory?

I'm somewhat familiar with base change in scheme theory: sometimes a property of a morphism X \to Y survives a base change ...
18k views

Motivation for algebraic K-theory?

I'm looking for a big-picture treatment of algebraic K-theory and why it's important. I've seen various abstract definitions (Quillen's plus and Q constructions, some spectral constructions like ...
17k views

A reading list for topological quantum field theory?

Can you suggest a reading list, or at least a few papers that you think would be useful, for a beginner in topological quantum field theory? I know what the curvature of a connection is, know basic ...
37k views

Examples of great mathematical writing

This question is basically from Ravi Vakil's web page, but modified for Math Overflow. How do I write mathematics well? Learning by example is more helpful than being told what to do, so let's try to ...
548 views

What is a formula for the “group-like Drinfeld element”?

Any quantized universal enveloping algebra (in fact, any toplogically quasi-triangular Hopf algebra) has an (in its completion) an element u called the Drinfeld element which gives an isomorphism from ...
863 views

When and how is a group of order n isomorphic to a regular subgroup of equal order?

In "Group Theory and Its Application to Physical Problems" by Morton Hamermesh, Morton states Cayley's theorem: Every group G of order n is isomorphic with a subgroup of the symmetric group Sn, which ...
791 views

Why are torsion points dense in an abelian variety?

Hi everyone, let $A$ be an abelian variety of dimension $g$ over an algebraically closed field $k$ of characteristic $p\geqslant 0$. I'm trying to prove that the subgroup $A'$ which is the union of ...
2k views

Is every functor a composition of adjoint functors?

My understanding of Ben's answer to this question is that even though associated graded is not an adjoint functor, it's not too bad because it is a composition of a right adjoint and a left adjoint. ...
1k views

Does the space of $n \times n$, positive-definite, self-adjoint, real matrices have a better name?

This is also the space of real, symmetric bilinear forms in $\Bbb R^n$.
12k views

What is Koszul duality?

Okay, let's make sure I'm on the same page with those who know homological algebra. What is Koszul duality in general? What does it mean that categories are Koszul dual (I guess representations of ...
2k views

How to attack this diophantine equation in 3 variables?

From link: Find integers a, b and c such that: 987654321a + 123456789b + c = (a + b + c)³
2k views

Spectrum of the Grothendieck ring of varieties

Here's a problem that may ultimately require just simple algebraic-geometry skills to be solved, or perhaps it's very deep and will never be solved at all. From the comments, some literature and my ...
1k views

Dualizing sheaf on singular curves

I am trying to understand the stabilization map, which takes a prestable curve (a curve with some marked points, and at worst nodal singularities) and returns a stable curve (a curve with some marked ...
2k views

Eigenvalues of Laplacian

What's the most natural way to establish the asymptotics of $\Delta$ on a compact Riemannian manifold $M$ of dimension $N$? The asymptotics should be  \#\{v < A^2\} = \mathrm{const}\ast\mathrm{...
428 views

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Fundamental: Division by Zero [closed]

All the articles I've read regarding "Division by Zero" the main argument for it being an undefined operation, because all proofs lead to contradictions. ...
6k views

does a line bundle always have a degree

For curves there is a very simple notion of degree of a line bundle or equivalently of a Weil or Cartier divisor. Even in any projective space $\mathbb P(V)$ divisors are cut out by hypersurfaces ...
A pivotal monoidal category is called non-degenerate if the inner product $\left(x,y\right) = Tr\left(xy^{*}\right)$ (where $y^{*}$ is the dual map) is non-degenerate. As a rule of thumb non-...