09w5102 Dedekind sums in geometry, topology, and arithmetic

Arriving Sunday, October 11 and departing Friday, October 16, 2009

Organizers: Matthias Beck (San Francisco State University), Paul Gunnells (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Adam Sikora (State University of New York (SUNY) - Buffalo).

Confirmed Participants

Press Release: Dedekind sums in geometry, topology, and arithmetic

Information for Participants

Schedule and Abstracts (PDF file)

Mailing List

Final Report (PDF file)

Workshop Videos

Objectives

The goal of the workshop is to bring together topologists, geometers, and number theorists working in the above areas. The emphasis will be on interaction between these groups of researchers, with the hopes of engendering cross-fertilization and new and unusual collaborations. All of the proposed participants are either active in these areas or have professed interest in them. The large areas of overlap among the topics above and the research interests of the proposed participants means that the intimate setting of Banff is ideal for such a workshop. The time is ripe for such a workshop. Although two-dimensional Dedekind sums have been around since the 19th century and higher-dimensional Dedekind sums have been explored since the 1950s, it is only recently that such sums have figured prominently in so many different areas. Moreover there have been conferences devoted to individual topics under consideration, such as enumerating lattice points in polytopes and special values of $L$-functions, but to date there has not been a meeting emphasizing Dedekind sums as a unifying theme between these subjects. Bringing together a group of researchers will likely lead to significant breakthroughs in current research programs, and may also uncover new connections between these fields.