Tropical Geometry Workshop

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Tropical geometry is a young and rapidly growing area in mathematics, rooted in algebraic geometry, complex analysis, commutative algebra, and combinatorics, with successful applications in computer science, biology and statistical physics, in addition to other areas of mathematics. Tropical geometry is a polyhedral analogue of algebraic geometry. Algebraic varieties over a valued field are replaced by polyhedral complexes, retaining some invariants of the original algebraic varieties. Tropical geometry provides a framework for solving algebro-geometric problems using concrete combinatorial tools. Recent years have seen tremendous development in tropical geometry that both established the field as an area in its own right and unveiled its deep connections to numerous branches of pure and applied mathematics. A workshop on Tropical Geometry will be held at International Centre for Mathematical meetings (CIEM) in Castro Urdiales, Cantabria, Spain, on December 12-16, 2011. It will be the first major international event in tropical geometry in two years and will as such serve to display the most recent developments, to foster interaction within a geographically wide-spread community, to initiate new collaborations, and to sustain and broaden the mentoring network within the field. The workshop will have 22 invited talks, a poster session, a software presentation, and a special discussion session devoted to open problems. The list of speakers includes senior as well as young promising researchers and all leading female mathematicians in the field. Graduate students and early career researchers will be able to showcase their work and get feedback from leading experts at the poster session. Around 60 participants, including around 30% from under-represented groups, are expected. To disseminate the results of the workshop to a wider audience, slides and notes from the presentations and discussions will be placed on the web. Conference proceedings of refereed articles on tropical geometry will also be published.