International Conference on Group Theory
Published on 13. März 2012, 15:53 h
Bielefeld University honours Professor Bernd Fischer's 75th birthday
Today (12 March), Bielefeld University is welcoming 180 mathematicians from 15 different countries to the 'Groups 2012' conference. They have been invited by the Bielefeld Collaborative Research Centre 701 'Spectral Structures and Topological Methods in Mathematics' and the Faculty of Mathematics to honour the 75th birthday of Professor em. Dr. Dr. h.c. Bernd Fischer, one of the first and most distinguished professors at the Faculty. Until Friday (16th March), the participants will be discussing the use of groups in different parts of mathematics and presenting the latest developments on the structure theory of groups. The conference is being held in English.
The Faculty is hosting the conference to honour its retired mathematics professor Bernd Fischer whose special field is group theory. He is considered to be one of the greatest algebraists of the 20th century. Bernd Fischer was one of the first professors of mathematics at Bielefeld University, he was frequently Dean of the Faculty, and he was a principal investigator in the Collaborative Research Centre 'Discrete Structures in Mathematics'.
The mathematical concept of the group refers to one of the most fundamental structures in mathematics. It is used to describe the interplay between, for example, axial and rotational symmetries. Group theory starts by looking at the smallest building blocks: the so-called simple groups that can be combined like a modular system to form further groups. Researchers soon noticed that there are also single exceptional groups, the so-called sporadic groups. The search for sporadic groups (we now know there are 26 of them) was one of the most important mathematical research projects during the last one-third of the twentieth century, involving about 100 mathematicians throughout the world. Bernd Fischer already found three of these sporadic groups in 1971. Nowadays, they bear his name – though with the mathematically prosaic titles F22, F23, and F24. He gained a lot of attention for predicting the existence of an enormous sporadic group that is known as the monster or the friendly giant. This group is so large that 54 digits are required to count the number of elements. Far-reaching speculations soon spread regarding possible links between this group and completely different mathematical issues. For a long time, these were known as 'moonshine' and considered to be complete nonsense. Nonetheless, the speculations regarding far-reaching links to not only analysis but also mathematical issues in physics actually proved to be true – and this has had a lasting effect on the development of mathematics. Some of the papers at the conferences will be addressing precisely these issues.
Mathematics is one of the mainstays of Bielefeld University's specialized profile in 'Theoretical sciences'. The Faculty has enjoyed a strong scientific reputation throughout the world for decades. Bielefeld's Collaborative Research Centre 701, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), is unique in Germany, because it brings together both 'pure' and 'applied' mathematicians who have been cooperating intensively since 2005. Issues in group theory play an important role in many of the subprojects in the Collaborative Research Centre, and this will also be one of the topics discussed at the conference.
For further information in the Internet, go to:
www.math.uni-bielefeld.de/groups2012/
Contact:
Professor Dr. Henning Krause, Bielefeld University
Faculty of Mathematics
Telephone: 0521 106-5020
Email: hkrause@math.uni-bielefeld.de
Today (12 March), Bielefeld University is welcoming 180 mathematicians from 15 different countries to the 'Groups 2012' conference. They have been invited by the Bielefeld Collaborative Research Centre 701 'Spectral Structures and Topological Methods in Mathematics' and the Faculty of Mathematics to honour the 75th birthday of Professor em. Dr. Dr. h.c. Bernd Fischer, one of the first and most distinguished professors at the Faculty. Until Friday (16th March), the participants will be discussing the use of groups in different parts of mathematics and presenting the latest developments on the structure theory of groups. The conference is being held in English.
Professor Bernd Fischer – who gave his name to three sporadic groups in mathematics.
The mathematical concept of the group refers to one of the most fundamental structures in mathematics. It is used to describe the interplay between, for example, axial and rotational symmetries. Group theory starts by looking at the smallest building blocks: the so-called simple groups that can be combined like a modular system to form further groups. Researchers soon noticed that there are also single exceptional groups, the so-called sporadic groups. The search for sporadic groups (we now know there are 26 of them) was one of the most important mathematical research projects during the last one-third of the twentieth century, involving about 100 mathematicians throughout the world. Bernd Fischer already found three of these sporadic groups in 1971. Nowadays, they bear his name – though with the mathematically prosaic titles F22, F23, and F24. He gained a lot of attention for predicting the existence of an enormous sporadic group that is known as the monster or the friendly giant. This group is so large that 54 digits are required to count the number of elements. Far-reaching speculations soon spread regarding possible links between this group and completely different mathematical issues. For a long time, these were known as 'moonshine' and considered to be complete nonsense. Nonetheless, the speculations regarding far-reaching links to not only analysis but also mathematical issues in physics actually proved to be true – and this has had a lasting effect on the development of mathematics. Some of the papers at the conferences will be addressing precisely these issues.
Mathematics is one of the mainstays of Bielefeld University's specialized profile in 'Theoretical sciences'. The Faculty has enjoyed a strong scientific reputation throughout the world for decades. Bielefeld's Collaborative Research Centre 701, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), is unique in Germany, because it brings together both 'pure' and 'applied' mathematicians who have been cooperating intensively since 2005. Issues in group theory play an important role in many of the subprojects in the Collaborative Research Centre, and this will also be one of the topics discussed at the conference.
For further information in the Internet, go to:
www.math.uni-bielefeld.de/groups2012/
Contact:
Professor Dr. Henning Krause, Bielefeld University
Faculty of Mathematics
Telephone: 0521 106-5020
Email: hkrause@math.uni-bielefeld.de
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