Fullerenes, Polytopes and Toric Topology

Abstract

The lectures are devoted to a remarkable class of $3$-dimensional polytopes, which are mathematical models of the important object of quantum physics, quantum chemistry and nanotechnology -- fullerenes. The main goal is to show how results of toric topology help to build combinatorial invariants of fullerenes. Main notions are introduced during the lectures. The lecture notes are addressed to a wide audience.