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SUMMARY:What's the Point? -  Alex Shannon (DPMMS)
DTSTART:20120304T164500Z
DTEND:20120304T171500Z
UID:TALK36736@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mary Fortune
DESCRIPTION:The notion of a 'point' in geometry seems fairly basic\, but d
 uring the 20th century a generalised and abstracted notion provided much n
 ew insight and intuition. More recently\, studying some of the mathematica
 l ideas underlying theoretical physics has led mathematicians to consider 
 so-called non-commutative geometry. 'Spaces' in this setting have algebras
  of functions on them which are non-commutative\, but there is no actual c
 lassical geometric space underlying them! However\, the generalised notion
  of a point does allow one to develop a certain amount of geometric intuit
 ion. In this talk\, I shall explain the modern point of view on points in 
 algebraic geometry\, and explain in some examples how this allows one to s
 tudy non-commutative algebras in a way that resembles what we might normal
 ly consider geometry.
LOCATION:Winstanley Lecture Theatre\, Trinity College
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