Everything is free to move across borders, except… some lesser things, like human beings.
Why your calculator (and computer, and phone…) is a weapon
The Australian government may have classified your calculator — and phone, and computer, and every electronic device you own — as military weapons.
The Lost Art of Integration Impossibility
Integration is less a science and more an art form. It high time we shed some light on this lost art.
Contact topology and holomorphic invariants, Tokyo Feb 2015
On 18 February, 2015 I gave a talk at Tokyo Institute of Technology. The talk was entitled “Contact topology and holomorphic invariants via elementary combinatorics”. Slides are available.
Is the Victoria Police Act a step forward?
(This article also appeared on the website of the Police Accountability Project.) Law Institute Journal considers the new Victoria Police Act — a step forward? A feature article in the most recent Law Institute Journal, In Search of Certainty, examines
Strings, fermions, curves on surfaces, ANZMC Dec 2014
On 11 December, 2014 I gave a talk at the 8th Australia New Zealand Mathematics Convention, at the University of Melbourne, as part of the Geometry and Topology session. Slides are available.
To mathematics champions
In November 2014, I spoke at the Victorian prize ceremony for the Australian Mathematics Competition.
The G20 and the Sanity Deficit
There is an important summit being held in Brisbane this week. At this summit, some of the most important issues facing humanity will be discussed: economic issues of growth and sustainability; the environment and climate; the rights of indigenous peoples
Strings, fermions, curves on surfaces, Unimelb Oct 2014
On 24 October, 2014 I gave a talk at the University of Melbourne, for the Algebra-Geometry-Topology Seminar. Slides are available.
Strings, fermions and the topology of curves on annuli
In previous work with Schoenfeld, we considered a string-type chain complex of curves on surfaces, with differential given by resolving crossings, and computed the homology of this complex for discs.
In this paper we consider the corresponding “string homology” of annuli. We find this homology has a rich algebraic structure which can be described, in various senses, as fermionic. While for discs we found an isomorphism between string homology and the sutured Floer homology of a related 3-manifold, in the case of annuli we find the relationship is more complex, with string homology containing further higher-order structure.