Workshop Series in von Neumann Algebras and Geometric Group Theory

Overview

The purpose of this workshop series is to foster new interactions between von Neumann algebras and various areas in group theory.

This is the first in a sequence of workshops, each featuring around ten talks by leading specialists in operator algebras and group theory. The regular talks will be complemented by an open problem session aimed at generating new research avenues at the intersection between these fields of mathematics. The workshop will provide a forum for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and senior mathematicians within the participant institutions to interact and exchange ideas. In addition, the organizers will target participation of students, postdocs and faculty from underrepresented categories in STEM.

When the travel restrictions will ease, we plan to continue these workshops in an online/in-person hybrid format and we will rotate them between the participant institutions: Vanderbilt University, University of California, San Diego, and University of Iowa.

The workshop series is supported by the organizers' NSF collaborative joint project: FRG Collaborative Research: von Neumann algebras of groups acting on hyperbolic spaces, (FRG-DMS-1853989, FRG-DMS-1854074, FRG-DMS- 1854194).

ORGANIZERS: Ionut Chifan, Adrian Ioana, Denis Osin, Jesse Peterson