Workshop 2016

W-algebras

Mentors: Tomoyuki Arakawa, Anne Moreau

Organisers: Peter McNamara, Arun Ram, Oded Yacobi

November 28 - December 2, 2016

University of Melbourne

Overview: Our goal is to bring together postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty to participate in a week-long intensive exploration of W-algebras and related geometric and representation theoretic topics.

The workshop will be led by Tomoyuki Arakawa and Anne Moreau, renown experts in this area. The format is roughly "Talbot Style". This means that the mentors and organisers will design a series of 15-20 lectures. Several of these lectures will be given by the mentors and other experts in attendance, but the majority of talks will be given by the participants. There will also be problem sessions and time for casual discussion among the participants.

Agenda:

• Day 1: Overview of theory and the goals of the workshop. Introduction to affine Lie algebras, and their representations.
• Days 1/2: Vertex algebras and Zhu functors, the canonical filtration and Zhu's C2 algebras.
• Days 2/3: BRST cohomology, quantum Hamiltonian reduction, geometry of nilpotent orbits and finite W-algebras.
• Days 3/4: Geometry of jet schemes, Poisson vertex algebras and associated varieties of vertex algebras.
• Days 4/5: Affine W-algebras, rationality of W-algebras, and chiral differential operators on groups.

For more information please go here.

Lecture notes: See this.

Funding: There will be limited funding available for travel and accommodations for participants; the amount of funding will depend on how many people register. We do not expect to be able to fund travel for participants from outside Australia.

Registration: Send an email to Oded Yacobi (oded.yacobi@sydney.edu.au) by July 30 with the following information

1. Name
2. University affiliation and status (postgraduate student, postdoc, etc...)
3. Research Interests and any other comments you may have. In particular let us know if you are requesting funding, and specifically how much you require.

The workshop aims to gather participants from wide background and all graduate educational levels, so applicants need not be experts in the field. We are also committed to promoting diversity in mathematics, so we especially encourage women and minorities to apply.