Colloquium
3:00 p.m., Wednesday (February 23, 2005)
West Mall Annex 110 (PIMS Facility)
Sergei Krutelevich
University of Ottawa
Jordan algebras, exceptional groups, and higher composition laws
Higher composition laws in number theory were discovered by M.
Bhargava several years ago. They may be viewed as a generalization of
Gauss's law of composition of binary quadratic forms. M. Bhargava also
discovered a mysterious connection between higher composition laws and
exceptional Lie groups.
In our talk we will describe an unexpected relation between higher
composition laws and the Freudenthal construction in the theory of
Jordan algebras. I will show how this construction can be used to
shed additional light on existing composition laws, as well as provide
new examples of spaces with similar properties.
Refreshments will be served at 2:45 p.m. in WMAX, Room 101, the PIMS Library.
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