Speaker Institution: Microsoft Station Q Santa Barbara
Title: Fermionic Topological Phases and Modular Transformations (Part 1)
Abstract: The effective theories describing bosonic topological phases of matter has been well-understood in terms of topological quantum field theories for many years. In contrast, the general mathematical structure of fermionic topological phases has remained unspecified. I will detail the algebraic structure of universal properties of fermionic topological phases, such as quasiparticle braiding statistics and modular transformation, which are crucially related to the spinor structure of the physical fermions.