Travel Support for US Participants in Focus Program "New Developments in Free Probability and Applications-at the Centre de Recherche Mathematiques."

Abstract

This award provides funding for US participation in the conference that will be held during the entire month of March 2019, at the Centre de Recherches Mathematiques(CRM) in Montreal, Canada. The conference focuses on recent developments in Free Probability Theory, which is deeply related to topics in several areas of Analysis, including Operator Algebras and Random Matrices, and also to other areas of mathematics such as Combinatorics. Free Probability was created in the 1980s by Dan Voiculescu. His fundamental insight was to treat phenomenon in operator algebras related to free groups in a noncommutative probabilistic framework, with his notion of freeness taking the place of independence. Free Probability Theory has developed extensively; the parallels with usual probability theory are quite far reaching. This has led to fundamental insights and far reaching developments in diverse areas, including Operator Algebras and Random Matrices. The program at CRM includes two workshops, one on theoretical aspects and another on applied aspects of Free Probability.

A number of distinguished mathematicians have agreed to attend and speak at this conference. This award gives early career researchers, members of underrepresented groups, researchers not funded by NSF and the like an opportunity to attend and participate in this conference. The organizing committee will strive to make this funding opportunity known to target groups through a number of different activities. More information is available at: http://www.crm.math.ca/crm50/en/march-1-31-2019-new-developments-in-free-probability-and-applications/.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.