CAPITAL REGION ALGEBRA/NUMBER THEORY SEMINAR 


Speaker:       Professor Antun Milas, RPI                 

Time:          Wednesday, December 10, at 5:00pm 

Place:         Earth Sciences Bldg. 152A, Univ. at Albany 

Title:         Vertex (Operator) Algebras for Beginners 


(Note: This is the last CRANTS talk for this semester, and as 
       is our tradition, we plan to go for dinner afterwards. Please 
       plan to join us. ) 
 

Abstract:

In my previous CRANTS talk (October, 2003) I hinted that there is a rich
algebraic structure underlying two dimensional conformal field theory.

In the present talk I will introduce the notions of vertex algebra and 
of vertex operator algebra (VOA). These notions turn out to be
generalizations of several standard algebraic notions. I will explain why
vertex operator algebras can be taught of as generalizations of commutative 
associative algebras. In the process we will learn what the correlation
functions are why these functions are important in representation theory. 

I will provide several examples such as Heisenberg VOA, Clifford VOA, etc.

This talk will be accessible to graduate students interested in algebra
and mathematical physics.


Refreshments at 4:45 pm in ES 152.