Tue, 25 Nov 2014

12:00 - 13:00
L5

Symmetries, K-theory, and the Bott periodicity of topological phases

Guo Chuan Thiang
Abstract

Topological phases of matter exhibit Bott-like periodicity with respect to
time-reversal, charge conjugation, and spatial dimension. I will explain how
the non-commutative topology in topological phases originates very generally
from symmetry data, and how operator K-theory provides a powerful and
natural framework for studying them.

Tue, 02 Dec 2014

12:00 - 13:00
L5

A geometric interpretation of algebraic quantum mechanics

Boris Zilber
Abstract

We treat the problem of geometric interpretation of the formalism
of algebraic quantum mechanics as a special case of the general problem of
extending classical 'algebra - geometry' dualities (such as the
Gel'fand-Naimark theorem) to non-commutative setting.  
I will report on some progress in establishing such dualities. In
particular, it leads to a theory of approximate representations of Weyl
algebras
in finite dimensional  "Hilbert spaces". Some calculations based on this
theory will be discussed.

Thu, 13 Nov 2014

17:30 - 18:30
L6

Independence in exponential fields

Robert Henderson
(UEA)
Abstract

Little is known about C_exp, the complex field with the exponential function. Model theoretically it is difficult due to the definability of the integers (so its theory is not stable), and a lack of clear algebraic structure; for instance, it is not known whether or not pi+e is irrational. In order to study C_exp, Boris Zilber constructed a class of pseudo-exponential fields which satisfy all the properties we desire of C_exp. This class is categorical for every uncountable cardinal, and other more general classes have been defined. I shall define the three main classes of exponential fields that I study, one of which being Zilber's class, and show that they exhibit "stable-like" behaviour modulo the integers by defining a notion of independence for each class. I shall also explicitly apply one of these independence relations to show that in the class of exponential fields ECF, types that are orthogonal to the kernel are exactly the generically stable types.
 

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