Functorial field theories are a mathematical axiomatization of certain aspects of quantum field theory unifying Atiyah's work on topological quantum field theories and Segal's work on conformal field theories. They are based on certain formal properties of the path integral which translate into invariants compatibility with respect to cutting and gluing constructions of manifolds. After introducing the basic definitions, my talk will focus on examples and connections to other areas of mathematics, mostly algebra and geometry. Concretely, I will discuss a duality result for modular functors, area dependent field theories and twisted bundles, and connections to index theory.
Links:
[1] https://www.mpim-bonn.mpg.de/de/taxonomy/term/39
[2] https://www.mpim-bonn.mpg.de/de/node/158