© | << < ? > >> | Dror Bar-Natan: Talks:

Computing the Zombian of an Unfinished Columbarium

2023 CMS Summer Meeting, Ottawa, June 2023.

Apology. This is a 20 minutes talk. Necessarily, it will be superficial.

Abstract. The zombies need to compute a quantity, the zombian, that pertains to some structure - say, a columbarium. But unfortunately (for them), a part of that structure will only be known in the future. What can they compute today with the parts they already have to hasten tomorrow's computation?

That's a common quest, and I will illustrate it with a few examples from knot theory and with two examples about matrices - determinants and signatures. I will also mention two of my dreams (perhaps delusions): that one day I will be able to reproduce, and extend, the Rolfsen table of knots using code of the highest level of beauty.

URL: http://drorbn.net/ott23.

Links: Burton history icerm

Handout: Zombian.html, Zombian.pdf.

Talk Video (also at YouTube).

Sources: pensieve.