Conference Service Mandl

abstract: On the occasion of Laci Babai's approaching 60th birthday we are holding a conference with the title "Combinatorics, Groups, Algorithms, and Complexity" at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. The date of the meeting is March 21-25, 2010 (Sunday-Thursday), with an opening social event Saturday evening (March 20).

The talks will highlight interconnections between the areas in the title. It is our hope that the conference will inspire new links and further cross-fertilization.

abstract: For years, computers have also played a key role in investigating the most central questions in the analytic theory of automorphic forms such as the existence of Maass wave forms. Recently, a team of researchers, including M. Rubinstein (Waterloo) and W. Stein (Seattle), has embarked on an ambitious collaborative effort to systematically gather vast amounts of data concerning, among other things, automorphic forms on higher rank groups. This effort is part of a three year (2008-2011) NSF funded Focused Research Group (FRG) grant dealing with L-functions and automorphic forms. The FRG effort is sure to generate challenges and new questions for people working both on the theoretical and the experimental side of the subject, as well as gathering valuable data that will be precious in suggesting conjectures or revealing new lines of enquiry.

abstract: The meeting will consist of talks given by invited speakers and a permanent poster exhibition. The scientific session will be dedicated to the memories of M. Silvia Lucido and M. Silvia Lucido on Thursday and Karl W. Gruenberg on Friday. The social programme will consist of a Concert, the Trip to the gardens La Mortella on Thursday morning, and the Conference Dinner on Friday evening.

abstract: The workshop will constitute a weeklong retreat with talks and organized discussions during the mornings and evenings; the afternoon schedule will be kept clear for informal discussions and collaborations. The workshop will generally focus on understanding the relationship between the representation theory of a loop group LG and the equivariant twisted K-theory of G. Specifically, talks will develop the geometric approach to the representation theory of loop groups, K-theory and its twisted variant, basic computations of K-theory, Dirac operators and the families index theorem, extended topological field theories and Chern-Simons theory, conformal field theory and the WZW model, and recent work on extending Chern-Simons and gauged Gromov-Witten theory. The workshop discussions will have an expository character and will be aimed at graduate students and junior faculty interested in this area.

abstract: The aim of MOGRAN-14 is to stimulate discussions of new ideas, mathematical methods and applications of group analysis to problems of nonlinear differential equations, difference equations and integro-differential equations in mathematical modeling.

abstract: Mini-lectures by E. Breuillard, P-E. Caprace, A. Valette.

abstract: The conference topics will focus on smooth group actions on manifolds and symmetry in geometric group theory. To investigate this theme, we hope to have a variety of talks ranging from the geometry and topology of manifolds to discrete group actions on CAT(0) spaces and buildings.

abstract: This program concerns character varieties of representations in a Lie group G of a discrete group $\pi$, for example, the fundamental group of a surface. These varieties have rich geometry and are related to interesting topological objects such as locally homogeneous geometric structures on manifolds, and moduli spaces arising in gauge theory. When $\pi$ is the fundamental group of a surface group S, the mapping class group acts with a complicated and mysterious dynamics.

abstract: The purpose of the conference is to bring together mathematicians working in all fields of mathematics dealing with Automorphism Groups of Topological Structures, in order to exchange ideas and present results of current research. Specific topics to be covered in this meeting are: 1) Recovery of spaces from their groups of homeomorphisms. 2) Topological characterization of the homeomorphism groups of various concrete spaces. 3) Realization of topological groups as groups of automorphisms of concrete spaces. 4) Extreme amenability of automorphism groups and homeomorphism groups. 5) The Urysohn universal space. 6) Structure theory of general and free topological groups.

abstract: There will be a conference on Geometric Group Theory in honor of Karen Vogtmann in CIRM Luminy near Marseille (France), on 21-25 June 2010.

abstract: This is an international conference that will take place in Lausanne, Switzerland. Group representation theory is a very active area of mathematics which has connections and overlaps with areas such as algebraic topology, K-theory, algebraic geometry and commutative ring theory. Research in the area has been driven by several conjectures and open problems which have pushed the development of new methodology and broader interactions with other areas of mathematics. The aim of the conference is to stimulate activity in and enhance interaction between representation theory and other areas of mathematics, like those presented above. In addition to the lectures, there will be a conference dinner in honor of Professor Jacques Thevenaz.

abstract: The conference is an annual event aimed at PhD students and young researchers. Two lectures (5 hours with 5 hours of recitation each) accompanied with approximately five advanced talks.

abstract: This workshop will be devoted to the study of a variety of topics in geometric and asymptotic group theory, with special emphasis on statistical methods and their applications (in theoretical cryptography). We have contributed to the organization of three similar conferences: in Manresa (Spain) in 2006, in Dortmund (Germany) in 2007, in New York in March 2008. We plan to gather leading specialists in various aspects of geometric, asymptotic, and algorithmic group theory. More specifically, the workshop topics will include quasi-isometries, isoperimetric functions, function growth, asymptotic invariants, random walks, algorithmic problems, etc.

abstract: During the past 20 years, geometric group theory has developed many different facets, including relations with geometry, topology, analysis, and logic. The new, more geometric, perspectives have enabled rapid progress on many of these fronts. A tremendous solidification of previously disparate results has also occurred. In algorithmic group theory, in recent years, more and more interconnections between computer science and classical group and semigroup theory have been discovered. Automata theory has motivated the definition of new classes of groups, for instance, automaton groups and automatic groups. Techniques from rewriting theory, data compression, and automata theory are used in order to solve more efficiently word problems as well as other computational problems in (semi)group theory. The program of the workshop will capitalize on this recent surge of activity in both areas.

abstract: In his seminal book 'Trees', Serre laid down the fundamentals of the theory of groups acting freely on simplicial trees. In the following decade Serre's novel approach unified several geometric, algebraic, and combinatorial methods of group theory into a unique powerful tool, known today as Bass-Serre Theory. Topologists became interested in R-trees with the work of Morgan and Shalen (1985) which generalized parts of Thurston's Geometrization Theorem. A joint effort of several researchers culminated in a description of finitely generated groups acting freely on R-trees, which is now known as Rips' theorem. The key ingredient of the theory is the so-called 'Rips machine'. The idea of the Rips machine comes from Makanin's algorithm (or elimination process) for solving equations in free groups.

abstract: Solving equations is one of the main topics in mathematics. A more general and more difficult problem is to describe which formulas of the first-order logic hold in a given group. Recent works on the Tarski's problems (Kharlampovich, Miasnikov, Sela) opened a new direction of research called now 'Algebraic geometry over groups'. We are going to discuss some methods and techniques used for the solution of these problems, and developments in the algebraic geometry for groups, Lie Algebras, and other algebraic systems.

abstract: This workshop, sponsored by AIM and the NSF, will be devoted to the outer automorphism group of the free group, Out(F); in particular, its geometry and its inherent asymmetry.