Arun Ram
Title: Combinatorial representation theory and elliptic cohomology
Abstract: On passing through a pedestrian underpass near the
train station in Bonn
one might notice graffiti declaring passion
between CRT and EC and wonder and
speculate about what kind of
relationship this is. Actually this graffiti was put there
late one
night by a mathematician visiting the Hausdorff Institute of
Mathematics.
Indeed this is a soap opera of the best sort with
Combinatorial Representation Theory
and Elliptic Cohomology being an
uncomfortable pair from different echelons of society
that, as a rule,
never mix. Of course the relationship is manipulated by family
(generalised cohomology theories), some friends (the Schubert classes)
that were once true
have now become elusive, and there are other,
somewhat uncomfortable, acquaintances
(abelian varieties and theta
functions) who cannot seem to keep their nose out of what
we think is
not their business. And who is it that is spying and scheming for
their own purposes?
(shh...the affine Lie algebras).