Automorphic Forms Workshop

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

This award will support the 27th annual Workshop on Automorphic Forms and Related Topics, to be held March 11--14, 2013, at University College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland. Funds will be used to defray travel costs of US-based attendees at the conference. The co-organizers are Scott Ahlgren (University of Illinois), Jeremy Lovejoy (CNRS, Paris 7), and Robert Osburn (University College Dublin). Additional information can be found on the workshop website: automorphicformsworkshop.org Automorphic forms have played diverse and important roles in mathematics for centuries. Over the years, it has been found that automorphic forms are deeply entwined in number theory, representation theory, combinatorics, mathematical physics, Lie theory, geometry, and other areas. Some of the most spectacular scientific breakthroughs in the 20th and 21st century, such as Borcherds' proof of the moonshine conjecture, the resolution of Fermat's Last Theorem by Wiles, and the proof of the Fundamental Lemma by Chau, are automorphic in nature. So are many other celebrated conjectures, such as those of Langlands and Bloch-Kato, which remain open, and those of Serre and Sato-Tate, whose proofs have recently been published or announced. Important new types of automorphic forms are still being discovered, such as the harmonic Maass forms which lie behind Ramanujan's mock theta functions. The AFW serves an important role in the community through its tradition of welcoming and mentoring junior researchers in the area. Many senior researchers have come through the workshop at some point in their career, and many gave one of their first conference talks at an AFW. The AFW has always had a welcoming reputation towards women and members of other underrepresented groups. Historically, a substantial percentage of participants have been women. The AFW attracts participants from around the world, from different career stages, and from different types of universities, and the workshop has led to many research collaborations and research papers. This will mark the first time that the AFW has been held outside of North America, which will provide junior US-based participants an excellent opportunity for exposure to the European and British research communities in automorphic forms.