[CANCELLED] Guest Lecture: Classification of simple amenable C*-algebras

Professor Stuart White (University of Oxford)

Tuesday 27th September, 2022 16:00-17:00

Abstract

 

THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED DUE TO COVID

 

Dear students and staff,

The School of Mathematics and Statistics is delighted to open up this year’s Distinguished Lecture Series by inviting you to a Guest Lecture in pure mathematics, to be given by Professor Stuart White (University of Oxford) on the Classification of simple amenable C*-algebras. The lecture will be held in-person at 4-5pm on Tuesday, 27th September. To attend, please register in advance at https://DLS-Guest-Lecture-2022.eventbrite.co.uk   

About the speaker

Stuart White is a Professor of Mathematics in the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford and a Tutorial Fellow at St John's College. In 2021, Professor White was awarded the Whitehead Prize by the London Mathematical Society and an ERC Advanced Grant to extend his work on the structure and classification of operator algebras. He was also an invited speaker in the International Congress of Mathematics in July 2022. Professor White was based in Glasgow in 2007-2019.

Abstract

C*-algebras are norm closed self-adjoint algebras of bounded operators on Hilbert space, and so arise naturally from unitary representations of groups and group actions, amongst other constructions. Large scale work of many researchers over decades has recently culminated in a definitive classification theorem for simple amenable C*-algebras of finite topological dimension.

In this talk, I’ll describe this theorem: which C*-algebras are classified, and by what data? I’ll discuss how this relates to the structure and classification theorems for von Neumann algebras from the 70s and 80s.  The talk will be illustrated by examples coming from group actions. I’ll start out by reviewing C*-algebras (beginning with the relevant definitions from the 4H functional analysis course); the lecture will be in the style of a pure maths colloquium.

We are looking forward to having you.

Best wishes,
Katarzyna

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