Speaker: Dr. Masoud Kamgarpour https://sites.google.com/site/masoudkomi/home Time: Friday, March 14, 2:30--3:30PM Room: Carslaw 175, the University of Sydney Lunch plan: we meet near Level 2 entrance to Carslaw Building around 1PM. The lunch would be at Law Annex Cafe with reservation at 1:10PM. ----------------------------------------------- Title: Symmetries in mathematics: a personal perspective Abstract: Studying symmetries is one of the most powerful tools available to scientists for making sense of the world. In this talk, I will start by explaining how symmetries of geometric objects give rise to familiar matrix groups. Following suggestions of physicists, we will replace points of our spaces with strings or loops, thus arriving at loop spaces and loop groups. I will then explain some of the methods available for understanding the structure of loop groups and their representations. We will then switch gear and consider symmetries of certain differential equations. Here, too, we will see the loop group intervening. Finally, I will explain an intriguing conjectural relationship, suggested by the Langlands’ philosophy, between differential equations and representations of loop groups. ----------------------------------------------- Joint Colloquium web site: http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/SemConf/JointColloquium/index.html