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FIRST MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT
HISTORY LECTURE *

held in conjunction with the International Galois Theory Conference in honor of
Graduate Research Professor John Thompson for his 70-th birthday

by

Robert Guralnick

University of Southern California

on

Links between Riemann surfaces and group theory
--- history and recent developments ---

 

Time: 4:00 - 4:55pm
Date: Wednesday, November 6, 2002
Room: 113 Little Hall

* Refreshments at 3:30 in LIT305

*** OPENING REMARKS ***
* BY PROVOST DAVID COLBURN *

 

Abstract:
We will discuss the interplay between group theory and Riemann surfaces. There is a natural topological invariant, the genus, of a Riemann surface. We will relate this invariant to certain group-theoretic constellations associated with the Riemann surface. Topics include automorphisms of Riemann surfaces and Hurwitz's bound; functions on a generic Riemann surface of a given genus and Galois groups associated to rational functions over the complexes. This last topic is closely associated to work of John Thompson from about 15 years ago and is continuing to be intensively studied. If time permits, we will discuss the analogous question over other fields, including finite fields and some applications to interesting arithmetic questions.

 

 

 


* Starting this year, the mathematics department will conduct several history lectures each year. They will describe how major ideas in various important fields of mathematics developed. Since this academic year is the Year of Algebra in honor of John Thompson, all history lectures in 2002/03 will be in algebra.


University of Florida * Mathematics * Contact Info
 

Created Friday, November 1, 2002.
Please report problems to: www@math.ufl.edu
Last update made Wed Nov 6 10:50:36 EST 2002.