Timothy Bates, Rutgers University

Abstract

Khovanov homology is a combinatorially defined invariant for links which categorifies the Jones polynomial. Khovanov’s method has inspired other efforts to categorify classical invariants; in particular the chromatic polynomial for graphs. I’ll talk about construction for Khovanov homology, what it’s good for in knot theory and a bit about the analogous cohomology theory categorifying the chromatic polynomial.

See: https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~kmg326/GCS/GCS.html