Algebra Seminar

Tue, 19/01/2010
17:00
Paul Lescot (University of Rouen) Algebra Seminar Add to calendar L2
Tue, 26/01/2010
17:00
Nikolai Nikolov (Imperial College London) Algebra Seminar Add to calendar L2
Tue, 16/02/2010
17:00
John Duncan (Cambridge) Algebra Seminar Add to calendar L2
   In 1939 Rademacher derived a conditionally convergent series expression for the modular j-invariant, and used this expression—the first Rademacher sum—to verify its modular invariance. We may attach Rademacher sums to other discrete groups of isometries of the hyperbolic plane, and we may ask how the automorphy of the resulting functions reflects the geometry of the group in question.
   In the case of a group that defines a genus zero quotient of the hyperbolic plane the relationship is particularly striking. On the other hand, of the common features of the groups that arise in monstrous moonshine, the genus zero property is perhaps the most elusive. We will illustrate how Rademacher sums elucidate this phenomena by using them to formulate a characterization of the discrete groups of monstrous moonshine.
  A physical interpretation of the Rademacher sums comes into view when we consider black holes in the context of three dimensional quantum gravity. This observation, together with the application of Rademacher sums to moonshine, amounts to a new connection between moonshine, number theory and physics, and furnishes applications in all three fields.
Tue, 23/02/2010
17:00
Pierre-Emmanuel Caprace (Universite catholique de louvain) Algebra Seminar Add to calendar L2
Tue, 02/03/2010
17:00
Pierre Cartier (IHES) Algebra Seminar Add to calendar L2
Tue, 09/03/2010
17:00
Andrzej Zuk (Paris VII Denis Diderot) Algebra Seminar Add to calendar L2
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