Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

Continuing the theme of Hopf algebras, we will discuss a recipe by Reshetikhin and Turaev for link invariants using representations of quantum groups, which are non-commutative, non-cocommutative Hopf algebras. In the simplest case with the spin 1/2 representation of quantum sl2, we recover the Kauffman bracket and the Jones polynomial when combined with writhe. Time permitting, we will also talk about colored Jones polynomials and connections to 3-manifold invariants.