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Skein Theory And Topological Quantum Field Theory, Xuanting Cai

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Skein modules arise naturally when mathematicians try to generalize the Jones polynomial of knots. In the first part of this work, we study properties of skein modules. The Temperley-Lieb algebra and some of its generalizations are skein modules. We construct a bases for these skein modules. With this basis, we are able to compute some gram determinants of bilinear forms on these skein modules. Also we use this basis to prove that the Mahler measures of colored Jones polynomial of a sequence of knots converges to the Mahler measure of some two variable polynomial. The topological quantum field theory constructed …