Noncommutative Geometry Seminar

Date: November 8, 2023

Time: 10:00AM - 11:00AM

Location: BLOC 302

Speaker: Guo Chuan Thiang, Peking University

Title: Quantum kilogram and quantized commutator traces

Abstract: In the 70s, Helton-Howe uncovered intricate structure in the traces of commutators. In the 80s, physicists discovered macroscopic quantization in the quantum Hall effect, leading to a redefinition of the kilogram in 2019. I will explain how these are directly related, and offer some perspectives on the coarse geometry approach to index theory on noncompact manifolds.