AbstractLet X_n be the set of tuples of 2x2 matrices (A_1, A_2, ..., A_n) such that the product A_1...A_n is the identity matrix, and considered up to simultaneous conjugation. On each X_n, there is a very classical and explicit action of the so-called braid group B_n. This is an elementary case of the so-called mapping class group action on the character varieties of surface groups, and was st...
Speaker Charles M. NewmanSilver Professor of Mathematics,New York UniversityBorn in Chicago in 1946, Professor Charles M. Newman received two B.S. (1966) degrees (Mathematics and Physics) from MIT, and M.A. (1966) and Ph.D. (1971) degrees in Physics from Princeton. His specialties are probability theory and statistical physics, with over 200 published papers in those and related areas. Beginnin...