EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: On usefulness of spectra
Speaker: Takuo Matsuoka
Speaker Info: Northwestern University
Brief Description:
Special Note:
Abstract:

I would like to explain to non-experts how stable homotopy theory gives a natural framework for thinking about characteristic numbers of manifolds, and characteristic classes of vector bundles. It will be observed that it is natural to consider these concepts in a general context where they are allowed to take values in quite general rings or "cohomology" rings. I will begin with basic examples and the definition of spectra, which are the objects of interest of the talk.