Iwasawa algebras and skew power series rings

Iwasawa algebras and skew power series rings

In this talk, beginning with a faulty proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem from the 19th century, Billy Woods will attempt to provide some motivation for the study of Iwasawa algebras, which have now become a critical tool in many significant number-theoretic problems.

Billy will give a couple of ways to think about them algebraically, contrast them with similar algebraic objects, and outline some of what is known (and what is still unknown) about them, including his own research. This is a talk about noncommutative algebra, but he will try to keep the technical jargon to a minimum, so that much of this talk remains accessible even to those who haven’t thought about abstract algebra in some time!

Speaker

Billy Woods, Essex Pathways, University of Essex

How to attend

If not a member of the Dept. Mathematical Science at the University of Essex, you can register your interest in attending the seminar and request the Zoom’s meeting password by emailing Dr Jesus Martinez-Garcia (jesus.martinez-garcia@essex.ac.uk)