Notes with P.Cohen on the trace formula Chapter 6

This earlier problem is of considerable importance in algorithmic number theory, and both have been excellent testing and breeding grounds for various important techniques, notably (and this is close to my heart…) leading to the invention and development of the first “large sieve” method by Linnik.

Piatetski-Shapiro Primes

A new norm related to the Gowers U^3 norm Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal Pablo Candela Pokorna Monday 16 February 2009, 16:00-17:00 MR12, CMS, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge, CB3 0WB. If you have a question about this talk, please contact Anton Evseev. The uniformity norms (or U^d norms, for d>1 a positive integer) were introduced about ten years ago by Gowers in his effective proof of Szemerédi’s theorem, and have played an important role in arithmetic combinatorics ever since. The U^2 norm is naturally related to Fourier analysis, and a very active trend in current research aims to develop an analogue of Fourier analysis for each U^d norm with d>2. The body of results of this research for d=3 is known as quadratic Fourier analysis. After an introduction to this area we will consider a new norm related to the U^3 norm, and discuss some of its applications in quadratic Fourier analysis, including a strengthening of a central theorem of Green and Tao (the inverse theorem for the U^3 norm), and how this stronger version of the theorem can be used to give a new proof of a recent decomposition-theorem of Gowers and Wolf. This talk is part of the Junior Algebra/Combinatorics/Number Theory seminar series.

Hall, Brian C. Lie groups, Lie algebras, and representations. An elementary introduction. Graduate Texts in Mathematics, 222. Springer-Verlag, New York, 2003. This is only a recommended text, but it is highly recommended. By emphasizing matrix groups, the book covers most of the important examples occuring in nature while avoiding a lot of the technical difficulties necessary in a more general treatment. It gives an excellent presentation of most of what we'll talk about. I think it will be a great book to read to supplement the lectures. Looking around on the web, I found many copies that were very reasonably priced.

Humphreys, James E. Introduction to Lie algebras and representation theory. Graduate Texts in Mathematics, 9. Springer-Verlag, New York-Berlin, 1978. A classic. Would have been my choice for a textbook, but unfortunately only covers Lie algebras.

Fulton, William; Harris, Joe. Representation theory. A first course. Graduate Texts in Mathematics, 129. Readings in Mathematics. Springer-Verlag, New York, 1991. A beautiful book to read. Very useful for self-study. Bump, Daniel. Lie groups. Graduate Texts in Mathematics, 225. Springer-Verlag, New York, 2004. Perhaps too hard for beginners, but it contains an excellent collection of topics in the final part.

We give an explicit construction of pseudorandom generators against low degree polynomials over finite fields. We show that the sum of 2d small-biased generators with error ε2O(d) is a pseudorandom generator against degree d polynomials with error ε. This gives a generator with seed length 2O(d) log(n/ε). Our construction follows the recent breakthrough result of Bogadnov and Viola. Their work shows that the sum of d small-biased generators is a pseudo-random generator against degree d polynomials, assuming the Inverse Gowers Conjecture. However, this conjecture is only proven for d=2,3. The main advantage of our work is that it does not rely on any unproven conjectures.