ICTP COLLOQUIUM
16:30,
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Main
Lecture Hall, Leonardo Building, ICTP
Counting
geometry
Abstract: A. Weil discovered
in the 1940's that the geometry of a complex algebraic
variety is reflected in a precise way on its versions over finite fields. This leads to the
possibility of gaining geometric insight from counting.
In this talk I will discuss the general principle and describe
how it can be applied to certain character varieties. These spaces
are an incarnation of those introduced by Hitchin in 1986 that
classify solutions to a two-dimensional reduction of the
self-dual Yang-Mills equation of mathematical physics.