It's the Week 7 Student Bulletin!Introducing Functional Analytic Tensor Categories
Abstract
This talk will provide an overview of the landscape of bicommutant categories, these are tensor categories with a strong functional-analytic flavour. I will discuss the evolution of the definition (and give the current version of the definition) and explain precisely how they categorify von Neumann algebras, in the same way a tensor category can be viewed as a categorification of an algebra. We will also introduce the string-calculus that renders the coherences in the definition transparent and workable.
The necessary background from functional analysis (in particular, operator theory) will be reviewed, and I will conclude with open questions (if waiting for the end of talk is not your style, there are 75 Open problems on André’s website).
The Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford has launched a new project to mentor students for GCSE Mathematics, called Oxford Unbounded. We will work directly with identified schools to support KS4 students to reach the very top grades in GCSE Mathematics or equivalent, by providing a sustained programme of resources and online mentoring. In particular, we will focus on students on track to achieve at least a grade 7 in GCSE Mathematics who have the potential to achieve a grade 8 or 9.