SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES

Fields Workshop around Connes' Embedding Problem
May 16- 18, 2008
University of Ottawa

SITE A0150 Friday
SITE H0104 Saturday
SITE AO150 Sunday.
The room for coffee break is SITE J0106. All the above are the same building, 800 King Edward. Map of Campus

Organizers: Benoit Collins, Thierry Giordano, David Handelman, Vladimir Pestov
Scientific Advisory Committee: George Elliott, Roland Speicher.

OVERVIEW

The embedding conjecture was formulated by A. Connes in the seventies. Technically, the question asks whether any finite type von Neumann algebra can be embedded into the ultrapower of the hyperfinite factor. This classification question can be rephrased as a non-commutative moment problem; equivalently, it asks whether generators of any tracial von Neumann probability space admit a matrix model.

Many results of von Neumann algebras theory could be obtained assuming the conjecture. In addition, many striking equivalent statements have been obtained, and no example of non embeddable von Neumann algebra is known so far. While many tried to disprove this conjecture, many new techniques, using non-commutative algebra, real algebraic geometry, representation theory and random matrices have been introduced over the last years.

We believe that we are at a good time to make a synthesis of what the new research trends in this area are: the purpose of this meeting is to create an occasion for the experts to meet, but also for the students to learn in a very accessible way the most recent trends of one of the most important problems of operator algebras.

Schedule

Friday May 16 - SITE A0150 - 800 King Edward
8:45-9:15:	Registration & coffee
9:15-10:00	Thierry Giordano (uOttawa) Introduction to von Neumann algebras
10:15-11:15	Vladimir Pestov (uOttawa) Ultrafilters and ultraproducts for beginners
11:15-11:45	coffee - SITE J0106
11:45-12:45:	Nate Brown, Penn State University Talk 1: Connes' Embedding Problem: An Introduction.
12:45-14:00:	Pizza-lunch - Math Department KED - 585 King Edward
14:00-15:00:	Gabor Elek, The Alfred Renyi Institute of Mathematics Talk 1: Sofic groups and Connes' Embedding Problem
15:15-16:15:	Ilijas Farah, York University Incompleteness, independence, and absoluteness or: When to call a set theorist?
Saturday May 17 - SITE H0104 - 800 King Edward
9:15-10:15:	Nate Brown, Penn State University Talk 2: Metric spaces associated with embeddable factors.
10:15-10:45:	coffee - SITE J0106
10:45-11:45:	Wing Suet Li, Georgia Institute of Technology Eigenvalue inequalities, in an embeddable factor and in other settings
12:00-13:00:	Gabor Elek, The Alfred Renyi Institute of Mathematics Talk 2: Constant time algorithms and measurable equivalence relations.
13:00-14:30:	Lunch break
14:30-15:30:	Ken Dykema, Texas A&M University A linearization of Connes' embedding problem
15:30-16:00:	coffee - SITE J0106
16:00-17:00:	Hari Bercovici, Indiana University Schubert calculus for the practical person 1
17:00-18:00:	Discussion
19:30?-:	Restaurant (to be specified)
Sunday May 18 - SITE AO150 - 800 King Edward
9:15-10:15:	Markus Schweighofer, Université de Rennes 1 A purely algebraic formulation of Connes' embedding conjecture
10:15-10:45:	coffee - SITE J0106
10:45-11:45	Hari Bercovici, Indiana University Schubert calculus for the practical person 2
12:00-13:00	Igor Klep, University of Ljubljana Sums of hermitian squares and the BMV conjecture

Participant List

Fullname	University/Affiliation
Argerami, Martin	University of Regina
Banica, Teodor	Univ. Toulouse 3
Bercovici, Hari	Indiana University
Brown, Nate	Pennsylvania State University
Ciuperca, Alin	University of Toronto
Collins, Benoît	University of Ottawa
Darras, Mohammed	University of Ottawa
de Lataillade, Joachim	University of Ottawa
Dykema, Ken	Texas A&M University
Elek, Gabor	Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Elliott, George	University of Toronto
Farah, Ilijas	York University
Giordano, Thierry	University of Ottawa
Hajji, Wadii	University of Ottawa
Handelman, David	University of Ottawa
Ivanov, Nikolay	Queen's University
Kalantar, Mehrdad	Carleton University
Kengne, Emmanuel	University of Ottawa
Klep, Igor	University of California, San Diego
Kousha, Termeh	University of Ottawa
Lei, Tao	York University
Li, Wing Suet	Georgia Institute of Technology
Mbombo Dempowo, Brice Rodrigue	University of Ottawa
Mingo, James A.	Queen's University
Ng, Ping Wong	University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Pestov, Vladimir	University of Ottawa
Poulin, Denis	Carleton University
Redelmeier, Emily	Queen's University
Saad, Nadia	University of Ottawa
Santiago Moreno, Luis	University of Toronto
Sasyk, Roman	University of Ottawa
Schweighofer, Markus	Université de Rennes 1
Speicher, Roland	Queen's University
Starling, Charles	University of Ottawa
Wang, Jiun-Chau	Indiana University
TO BE CONFIRMED
Novak, Jonathan	Queen's University
Viola, Maria Grazia	Fields Institute

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