2009 Topology Seminar - 07

  • Date: 03/11/2009
Lecturer(s):
Yongbin Ruan (University of Michigan)
Location: 

University of British Columbia

Topic: 

Integrable hierarchies and singular theo

Description: 

Almost twenty years ago, the celebrated theorem of Witten-Kontsevich
asserted that the intersection theory of Deligne-Mumford space is
governed by KdV-hierarchies. Around the same time, Witten proposed a
sweeping generalization which leads to the representation theory of
infinite dimensional Lie algebras and singularity theory. In the talk,
we will sketch the recent resolution of Witten's vision by Fan-Jarvis
and the author and the appearance of new phenomena such as mirror
symmetry in the integrable hierarchy problem.

Schedule: 

3:00pm-4:00pm, WMAX 110

Sponsor: 

pims