Change of Title: The Cohen-Lenstra Philosophy

Speaker: Nigel Boston (University of Wisconsin - Madison)

Time: 3:00PM
Date: Wed 27th July 2011

Location: Mathematical Sciences Seminar Room

Abstract
In 1983 Henri Cohen and Hendrik Lenstra noted that the distribution of certain p-class groups G (p odd) behaved as if G were given weight 1/|Aut(G)|. Similar weights have since been placed on objects in other categories and a broad general philosophy has developed. We will describe some striking current developments, including new work of the speaker, Michael Bush, and Farshid Hajir.

(This talk is part of the K-Theory, Quadratic Forms and Number Theory series.)