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Cahit Arf Lecture 2012 by David E. Nadler titled Traces and Loops
Mathematics Department, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
This conference is the 12th of a series of conferences dedicated to the memory of Cahit Arf who is a renown Turkish mathematician.
This talk will focus on the interplay between two basic notions originating in algebra and topology. In algebra, there is the trace of a matrix, important for its equality with the sum of the eigenvalues of the matrix. In topology, there are the loops on a space, which play a central role in the computation of homotopy groups and in the structure theory of spaces. There is a well-developed understanding of the intimate relation between traces and loops coming from non-commutative geometry and mathematical physics. We will explain how modern formulations elucidate fundamental identities in geometry and representation theory.