Low Dimensional Topology: Proceedings of a Conference on Low Dimensional Topology, January 12-17, 1998, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

Proceedings of a January 1998 conference. Early papers are devoted to the PoincarT conjecture, characterizations of PL -manifolds, quadratic forms of links, and categories in low dimensional topology that appear in connection with conformal and quantum field theory. Later papers cover knot theory, braid groups, and topological quantum field theory and polynomial invariants for rational homology 3-spheres derived from the quantum SU (2)-invariants associated with the first cohomology class modulo two. Lacks a subject index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)