Title: What do magnetic monopoles have to do with sheaves of groupoids?
Abstract: In 1931, Dirac studied the physical implications of the existence of a magnetic monopole in 3 dimensions, one of which is the quantization of electric charge. A key mathematical player is a line bundle with connection whose curvature is proportional to the magnetic field. In particular, there is an associated second cohomology class related to Dirac's quantization condition. We will explain how this works and sketch how to interpret it as a 3-dimensional phenomenon by passing to degree 3 cohomology.
Note: The talk will start at 4:10 pm
Daniel Mallory
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