viii, 57 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / We introduce a new finite-complexity knot theory, the theory of plumbers' knots, as a model for classical knot theory. The spaces of plumbers' curves admit a combinatorial cell structure, which we exploit to algorithmically solve the classification problem for plumbers' knots of a fixed complexity. We describe cellular subdivision maps on the spaces of plumbers' curves which consistently make the spaces of plumbers' knots and their discriminants into directed systems. In this context, we revisit the construction of the Vassiliev spectral sequence. We construct homotopical resolutions of the discriminants of the spaces of plumbers knots and describe how their cell structures lift to these resolutions. Next, we introduce an inverse system of unstable Vassiliev spectral sequences whose limit includes, on its E ∞ - page, the classical finite-type invariants. Finally, we extend the definition of the Vassiliev derivative to all singularity types of plumbers' curves and use it to construct canonical chain representatives of the resolution of the Alexander dual for any invariant of plumbers' knots. / Committee in charge: Dev Sinha, Chairperson, Mathematics; Hal Sadofsky, Member, Mathematics; Arkady Berenstein, Member, Mathematics; Daniel Dugger, Member, Mathematics; Andrzej Proskurowski, Outside Member, Computer & Information Science

xii, 76 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / We study the graded representation theory of the Iwahori-Hecke algebra, denoted by Hd , of the symmetric group over a field of characteristic zero at a root of unity. More specifically, we use graded Specht modules to calculate the graded decomposition numbers for Hd . The algorithm arrived at is the Lascoux-Leclerc-Thibon algorithm in disguise. Thus we interpret the algorithm in terms of graded representation theory. We then use the algorithm to compute several examples and to obtain a closed form for the graded decomposition numbers in the case of two-column partitions. In this case, we also precisely describe the 'reduction modulo p' process, which relates the graded irreducible representations of Hd over [Special characters omitted.] at a p th -root of unity to those of the group algebra of the symmetric group over a field of characteristic p. / Committee in charge: Alexander Kleshchev, Chairperson, Mathematics; Jonathan Brundan, Member, Mathematics; Boris Botvinnik, Member, Mathematics; Victor Ostrik, Member, Mathematics; William Harbaugh, Outside Member, Economics

vii, 124 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This dissertation is a study of the relationship between minimal dynamical systems on the product of the Cantor set ( X ) and torus ([Special characters omitted]) and their corresponding crossed product C *-algebras. For the case when the cocyles are rotations, we studied the structure of the crossed product C *-algebra A by looking at a large subalgebra A x . It is proved that, as long as the cocyles are rotations, the tracial rank of the crossed product C *-algebra is always no more than one, which then indicates that it falls into the category of classifiable C *-algebras. In order to determine whether the corresponding crossed product C *-algebras of two such minimal dynamical systems are isomorphic or not, we just need to look at the Elliott invariants of these C *-algebras. If a certain rigidity condition is satisfied, it is shown that the crossed product C *-algebra has tracial rank zero. Under this assumption, it is proved that for two such dynamical systems, if A and B are the corresponding crossed product C *-algebras, and we have an isomorphism between K i ( A ) and K i ( B ) which maps K i (C(X ×[Special characters omitted])) to K i (C( X ×[Special characters omitted])), then these two dynamical systems are approximately K -conjugate. The proof also indicates that C *-strongly flip conjugacy implies approximate K -conjugacy in this case. We also studied the case when the cocyles are Furstenberg transformations, and some results on weakly approximate conjugacy and the K -theory of corresponding crossed product C *-algebras are obtained. / Committee in charge: Huaxin Lin, Chairperson, Mathematics Daniel Dugger, Member, Mathematics; Christopher Phillips, Member, Mathematics; Arkady Vaintrob, Member, Mathematics; Li-Shan Chou, Outside Member, Human Physiology

viii, 133 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / In this dissertation, we will study the crossed product C*-algebras obtained from free and minimal [Special characters omitted.] actions on compact metric spaces with finite covering dimension. We first define stable recursive subhomogeneous algebras (SRSHAs), which differ from recursive subhomogeneous algebras introduced by N. C. Phillips in that the irreducible representations of SRSHAs are infinite dimensional instead of finite dimensional. We show that simple inductive limits of SRSHAs with no dimension growth in which the connecting maps are injective and non-vanishing have topological stable rank one. We then construct C*-subalgebras of the crossed product that are analogous to the C*-subalgebras in the studies of free minimal [Special characters omitted.] actions on compact metric spaces with finite covering dimension. Finally, we prove that these C*-algebras are in fact simple inductive limits of SRSHAs in which the connecting maps are injective and non-vanishing. Thus these C*-subalgebras have topological stable rank one. / Committee in charge: Christopher Phillips, Chairperson, Mathematics; Boris Botvinnik, Member, Mathematics; Huaxin Lin, Member, Mathematics; Yuan Xu, Member, Mathematics; Dietrich Belitz, Outside Member, Physics

abstract: C*-algebras of categories of paths were introduced by Spielberg in 2014 and generalize C*-algebras of higher rank graphs. An approximately finite dimensional (AF) C*-algebra is one which is isomorphic to an inductive limit of finite dimensional C*-algebras. In 2012, D.G. Evans and A. Sims proposed an analogue of a cycle for higher rank graphs and show that the lack of such an object is necessary for the associated C*-algebra to be AF. Here, I give a class of examples of categories of paths whose associated C*-algebras are Morita equivalent to a large number of periodic continued fraction AF algebras, first described by Effros and Shen in 1980. I then provide two examples which show that the analogue of cycles proposed by Evans and Sims is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for the C*-algebra of a category of paths to be AF. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Mathematics 2020

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