Conference Proposal: Geometric and topological aspects of the representation theory of finite groups

University Of Utah, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

The summer school and workshop "Geometric and topological aspects of the representation theory of finite groups" will take place July 27 to August 5, 2016 at the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences in Vancouver, Canada. The summer school will take place July 27-30 and the workshop will take place August 1-5. Representation theory of finite groups is a very rich subject with connections to many areas of mathematics. The subject seeks to understand the ways in which an abstract collection of operators can be expressed as transformations on a space. Striking developments in this field have recently been made by researchers in Europe. A major aim of the scheduled events is to provide an opportunity for graduate students, postdocs, and early-career researchers to learn about these developments directly from the sources. An additional aim is to facilitate new collaborations. This project will support the participation of US-based researchers (predominantly graduate students and recent PhDs) in the summer school and workshop. The scientific focus of the summer school and workshop is the representation theory of finite groups and related algebraic structures, with an emphasis on the modular case. This is an active area of research in the US and abroad, with mathematicians on different continents working on different aspects of the subject. The summer school will be centered around four lecture series: Rational Cohomology and Support for Linear Algebraic Groups (Eric Friedlander); Group Actions via Homotopy Theory (Jesper Grodal); Local Representation Theory (Radha Kessar); and Endo-trivial Modules for Infinite Groups (Peter Symonds). Taken together, these topics cover a broad range of current research on modular representation theory of finite groups. The workshop will consist of twenty-three lectures by international scholars who are are known for their seminal contributions and for their ability to communicate mathematics effectively. The lectures from the summer school and workshop will be submitted for publication. The webpage for the summer school and workshop is http://www.pims.math.ca/scientific-event/160727-psswgatartofg.