MenuEvents for 04/24/2014 from all calendars
Number Theory Seminar
Time: 11:00AM - 12:00PM
Location: BLOC 627
Speaker: Mehmet Kiral, Brown University
Title: Sup-norms of half-integer weight modular forms
Abstract: Automorphic forms are basic objects in analytic number theory, we try to understand their behaviour as much as possible. In this talk I will talk about bounding sup norms of modular forms with respect to the level aspect. The method of amplification as developed by Duke-Iwaniec and Friedlander will be discussed.
URL: Event link
Geometry Seminar
Time: 2:15PM - 3:15PM
Location: Blocker 627 - No
Speaker: Shamgar Gurevich, U. Wisconson
Title: Weil representations and explicit Mordell--Weil lattices
Abstract: The Weil representation is a central object in mathematics. It explains the zero point energy of crystals in quantum mechanics, it can be used to prove the Quadratic Reciprocity Law, and to derive the theory of spherical harmonics. In this talk, the Weil representation will be applied to sphere packing. I will an show explicit construction of the Weil representation of the conformal symplectic group GSp(2N,p) acting on a vector space over Q -the rationals. In case p=1 mod 4, this can be used to give an explicit construction for the Weil representation of the symplectic group Sp(2N,p) acting on a vector space over Q(Gauss) - the field of rationals numbers extended by a Gauss sum. If time permits, I will apply this to explicit constructions of the Mordell-Weil lattices which give very good sphere packings.
Roger Howe Colloquium
Time: 4:00PM - 5:00PM
Location: BLOC 117
Speaker: Professor Roger Howe
Description:
Title: Standards based teacher preparation
Abstract: Teacher preparation is a critical, if often underappreciated, function of universities, and mathematics is one of the subjects in which it is most critical. Until recently, the mathematical preparation of teachers was almost unavoidably a somewhat haphazard process. With the advent of strong sets of standards for what should be learned each year in school, it becomes possible to adopt a more targeted approach, which attends to the insight that what teachers need to know is not mathematics per se, but how mathematics develops from year to year in school children, and what sorts of teaching support that development. Teacher preparation that imparts this kind of understanding could be called "standards-based". This talk will discuss what standards-based teacher preparation in mathematics might look like, and what it would take to create it.
