Speaker：Zhongtao Wu (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Time：2024-12-2, 16:00

Location：Conference Room S107 at Experiment Building at Haiyun Campus

Abstract:

Alexander polynomial has been one of the most important tools in the development of knot theory since its discovery 100 years ago. For spatial graphs, Bao and the speaker defined an analogous invariant. In many aspects, the Alexander polynomial of spatial graphs shares similar topological properties with the classical one for knots; but it also contains certain unique graph theoretical information, such as, its evaluation at t=1 gives the number of spanning trees of the graph. This talk aims to give a general introduction to this invariant.