An introduction to string topology |
| Somnath Basu |
| Abstract |
| For any oriented surface consider the vector space of free homotopy classes of non-trivial closed curves on it. It follows from the works of Goldman and Turaev that this vector space is actually a Lie bialgebra. Generalizations of this to higher dimensions lead to string topology. Time permitting, we will discuss some examples and computations. |