Vertex Operator Algebras and Their Representations

Mini course by

Professor Terry Gannon

University of Alberta

March 24 - 28, 2025

Picture of Terry Gannon (University of Alberta)

From March 24 to March 28, 2025, Professor Terry Gannon from the University of Alberta will teach a mini course on vertex operator algebras and their representations at the Atlantic Algebra Centre. The lectures will take place at the St. John's campus of Memorial University.

Vertex operator algebras have been a topic of interest in mathematical physics for several decades now, as they constitute one possible approach to formalize physical concepts from conformal field theory. They have relations to several other areas of mathematics, most notably to the theory of finite simple groups. This specific relation lead in fact to the award of the Fields Medal to Professor Richard Borcherds at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin in 1998.

Every vertex operator algebra comes with its category of representations. These representation categories can be compared with the representation categories coming from other mathematical objects, such as the finite groups mentioned above, or more generally the representation categories coming from Hopf algebras. Such comparisons have led to various conjectures that are currently a very active field of mathematical research.

The lecturer of the mini course, Terry Gannon, is a professor at the University of Alberta and the former chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistical Sciences there. He is the author of a well-known monograph on the topic, which was published with Cambridge University Press.

The precise schedule of the mini course will be announced on this web page later. We have limited funds to partially support travel, primarily for students from Atlantic Canada. For any questions about the mini course, please contact Yorck Sommerhäuser at sommerh@mun.ca.