Representation Theory and Mathematical Physics

Representation Theory and Mathematical Physics Synopsis

This volume contains the proceedings of the conference on Representation Theory and Mathematical Physics, in honor of Gregg Zuckerman's 60th birthday, held October 24-27, 2009, at Yale University. Lie groups and their representations play a fundamental role of mathematics, in particular because of connections to geometry, topology, number theory, physics, combinatorics, and many other areas. Representation theory is one of the cornerstones of the Langlands program in number theory, dating to the 1970s. Zuckerman's work on derived functors, the translation principle, and coherent continuation lie at the heart of the modern theory of representations of Lie groups. One of the major unsolved problems in representation theory is that of the unitary dual. The fact that there is, in principle, a finite algorithm for computing the unitary dual relies heavily on Zuckerman's work. In recent years there has been a fruitful interplay between mathematics and physics, in geometric representation theory, string theory, and other areas. New developments on chiral algebras, representation theory of affine Kac-Moody algebras, and the geometric Langlands correspondence are some of the focal points of this volume. Recent developments in the geometric Langlands program point to exciting connections between certain automorphic representations and dual fibrations in geometric mirror symmetry.