Press Release:

Classification of Multiplicity-Free Kronecker Products

The Banff International Research Station will host the "Classification of multiplicity-free Kronecker products" workshop in Banff from May 10 to May 17.

The P versus NP problem is one of the 7 Millennium Prize Problems (each worth $1,000,000) set up by the Clay Mathematics Institute. These are considered to be the most important open problems in Mathematics (only one of them has been solved). Geometric Complexity Theory is a new approach that seeks to settle the P versus NP problem. At the heart of this approach lie the Kronecker coefficients, a family of coefficients which arise in the mathematical study of symmetry. It is conjectured that understanding these coefficients could lead to a resolution of the P versus NP problem and the permanent versus determinant conjecture of Valiant. The team of Assaf, Bessenrodt, Bowman, Hicks, Remmel, Tewari and van Willigenburg intend to make progress on the problem of determining Kronecker coefficients by classifying multiplicity-free and near multiplicity-free Kronecker products using a combination of classical and cutting-edge techniques.

The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) is a collaborative Canada-US-Mexico venture that provides an environment for creative interaction as well as the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the Mathematical Sciences, with related disciplines and with industry. The research station is located at The Banff Centre in Alberta and is supported by Canada's Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Alberta's Advanced Education and Technology, and Mexico's Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT).

BIRS Scientific Director, Nassif Ghoussoub
E-mail: birs-director[@]birs.ca
http://www.birs.ca/~nassif