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).