Conference Service Mandl

abstract: The purpose of the workshop is to bring together mathematicians, physicists, and students interested in the interaction between topology and physics. Six invited lectures will describe various classical and current aspects of this interaction at a level appropriate to an audience of non-specialists. Poster sessions and extended discussion periods will provide the opportunity for participants to exchange ideas and establish contacts and collaborations.

abstract: This workshop will bring together researchers interested in the topology of stratified spaces. It will focus roughly on four topics: topology of complex varieties, signature theory on singular spaces, and intersection cohomology, and mixed Hodge theory and singularities. Aside from talks on current research, there will be a series of introductory lectures on these themes. These talks will be aimed at strengthening the connections among the various topology research groups and the connections between topology researchers and researchers at the program on Analysis of Singular Spaces, running concurrently.

abstract: In recent years, there has been exciting progress in the following three branches of low-dimensional topology: Heegard Floer Homology, 4-Dimensional Manifolds, and Khovanov Homology. The format of this workshop will be three one-hour lectures every day, most likely one on each topic. The first day will consist of introductions to these areas; later talks will be given by experts in the areas who can explain the most recent developments. There will be time for discussions in the hope that participants will interact intensely.

abstract: This conference, in honor of the 70th birthday of Herman Gluck, will address two topics in the application of geometry to other fields: (1) calibrated geometry and its applications to physics; (2) the application of geometry to knot theory, including topics such as Freedman's Mobius energy and Nabutovsky's ropelength.

abstract: This workshop, sponsored by AIM and the NSF, has the goal of providing a description of $GL_3$ automorphic forms and their $L$-functions amenable to analytic number theorists and to explain the various approaches available to perform harmonic analysis on these spaces. A second objective will be to discuss the extension of some of the important tools existing in the $GL_2$ theory to the $GL_3$ context: a typical example is Kuznetzov's formula. A third objective will be to list some important problems known for $GL_2$ and to identify the main obstructions to the extension of these to $GL_3$: typical problems are non-vanishing problems for central values of L-functions and subconvexity problem. To achieve these goals we plan to bring together analytic number theorists and specialists from the theory of automorphic forms and related fields who are interested in analytic questions.

abstract: Twenty-first century algebraic geometry is a broad subject, with mathematicians on different frontiers sharing little background. This workshop will consist of colloquium-style talks introducing some of its subfields to people, particularly postdocs, working in other areas. The workshop is part of the semester program on Algebraic Geometry, and some additional funding will be available for participants to attend the associated introductory workshop 'Classical algebraic geometry', January 26-30, 2009.

abstract: The main theme of the workshop will be to explore modern approaches to problems originating in Classical Algebraic Geometry, and at the same time offer an introduction to various subfields to the younger participants in the semester-long program. Topics will include: (1) Birational geometry; (2) Moduli spaces of curves; (3) Moduli spaces of vector bundles; (4) Abelian varieties.

abstract: This workshop will convene experts specializing on the minimal model program, derived categories and moduli spaces in an informal environment to facilitate the cross-fertilization of ideas across these different fields of algebraic geometry.

abstract: This workshop will present the state of the art in combinatorial, enumerative, and toric algebraic geometry. It will highlight this part of modern algebraic geometry within the context of the broader semester-long parent program at MSRI, and convey its scope to young researchers.

abstract: TOPOLOGY, C*-ALGEBRAS, and STRING DUALITY May 18 - May 22, 2009 Opening reception on the evening of May 17 at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX Principal Lecturer: Jonathan Rosenberg (Univ. of Maryland) Some of the most exciting current research in geometry and topology has been motivated by problems in mathematical physics in general, and string theory in particular. Physicists are still divided concerning the usefulness of string theory as a ``unified field theory,'' uniting our understanding of all the fundamental forces of nature. However, even if string theory should turn out not to be fully confirmed by experiment, the fascinating and beautiful mathematics it has generated is expected to retain its mathematical value. The subject of the conference will involve a number of such ``spin-offs'' of string theory into pure mathematics, and the way they connect with other topics in topology and operator algebras that were initially developed for other purposes.

abstract: The workshop will feature minicourses in hyperbolic geometry, quantum topology and number theory given by world renowned experts and is aimed at graduate students and recent PhD's. Support is available for the workshop and conference participants mainly in the form of housing. We also expect to provide partial travel support. Funding is provided by the NSF through an FRG grant. Detailed information about support, speakers and participants will be announced soon on the conference homepage.

abstract: The goals of the 2009-2010 program at MSRI are to. I. Promote the cross-pollination of ideas between different areas of symplectic and contact geometry; II. Help assess and formulate the main outstanding fundamental problems and directions in the field; III. Lead to new breakthroughs and solutions of some of the main problems in the area; IV. Discover new applications of symplectic and contact geometry in mathematics and physics; V. Educate a new generation of young mathematicians, giving them a broader view of the subject and the capability to employ techniques from different areas in their research. To achieve these goals, the program will concentrate on three broad, interrelated themes that encompass many of the modern trends in symplectic geometry: algebraic structures associated to holomorphic curves; symplectic and contact geometry in low-dimensional topology; and symplectic topology and dynamics.