EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Modular Forms in Topology
Speaker: Professor Mark Behrens
Speaker Info: MIT
Brief Description:
Special Note: Graduate Student Colloquium
Abstract:

After discussing the notion of a modular form, and of a cohomology theory, I will describe a cohomology theory of "topological modular forms". I will explain how this cohomology theory generates invariants of manifolds and detects elements of the homotopy groups of spheres in terms of modular forms. Much of the work in this expository talk is due to Mike Hopkins and his collaborators.