A higher category of cobordisms and topological quantum field theory

TL;DR

This paper develops a categorical framework for Extended Topological Quantum Field Theories using n-fold categories, generalizing existing 2D models to higher dimensions and encompassing various physical theories.

Contribution

It introduces a formalism based on n-fold categories for describing higher-dimensional TQFTs, extending previous 2D models and connecting multiple physical theories.

Findings

Framework unifies various TQFTs as functors from cobordism categories

Generalizes 2D open-closed TQFTs to higher dimensions

Provides a categorical description for theories like Chern-Simons and Seiberg-Witten

Abstract

The goal of this work is to describe a categorical formalism for (Extended) Topological Quantum Field Theories (TQFTs) and present them as functors from a suitable category of cobordisms with corners to a linear category, generalizing 2d open-closed TQFTs to higher dimensions. The approach is based on the notion of an n-fold category by C. Ehresmann, weakened in the spirit of monoidal categories (associators, interchangers, Mac Lane's pentagons and hexagons), in contrast with the simplicial (weak Kan and complete Segal) approach of Jacob Lurie. We show how different Topological Quantum Field Theories, such as gauge, Chern-Simons, Yang-Mills, WZW, Seiberg-Witten, Rozansky-Witten, and AKSZ theories, as well as sigma model, may be described as functors from the pseudo n-fold category of cobordisms to a pseudo n-fold category of sets.