University at Albany

         Department of Mathematics and Statistics

                 Colloquium/CRANTS    


Speaker:       Professor Alex Feingold, Binghamton University 

Time:          Tuesday, October 19, at 4:30 pm       

Place:         Earth Sciences Bldg. 108,  Univ. at Albany 

Title:         Monstrous Moonshine: The First Twentyfive Years 


Abstract:

The classification of finite simple groups includes 26 
sporadic groups, the largest of which is called the Monster. It was 
connected to the theory of modular functions by an observation of J. 
McKay, and subsequently Conway and Norton published the paper 
``Monstrous Moonshine" containing many more remarkable numerical 
connections. They conjectured the existence of a Z-graded module which 
would explain some of the connections. Frenkel, Lepowsky and Meurman 
constructed that ``Moonshine module", using vertex operators and linking 
the Monster to modular functions through Conformal Field Theory. This 
talk will survey the main points of this remarkable story.


Refreshments at 3:30 pm in ES 152.