Wednesday May 1st, 2024 | |
| Time: | 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM |
| Title: | Fixed points, traces and characters |
| Speaker: | David Ben-Zvi, University of Texas, Austin |
| Location: | SCGP 313 |
| Abstract: | |
| This talk will explore one of my favorite themes in mathematics: the abstract notion of a trace and its manifestation via fixed points in geometry and partition functions in quantum mechanics. This relation gives rise to a sequence of increasingly sophisticated character formulas, as well as a broader sense of what characters are. I will conclude with a perspective on L-functions of Galois representations as characters, developed in my joint work with Yiannis Sakellaridis and Akshay Venkatesh. (The talk is meant to be independent of the previous day's talk but with a closely related end-point.) | |