Analysis & Applications Seminar
XXXVIII MEMORIAL RUBIO DE FRANCIA - Kakeya sets and von Neumann algebras of arithmetic groups
Speaker: Mikael de la Salle (Institut Camille Jordan, Lyon)Date: Thursday, 14 May 2026 - 11:30Place: Aula 520, Módulo 17, Departamento de Matemáticas, UAM
Abstract:
Kakeya sets are subsets of the Euclidean space that contain a unit segment in every direction. They are naturally a fascinating topic of recreational mathematics, but since the foundational work of Fefferman on the convergence of Fourier series, they have found important applications to serious mathematics: harmonic analysis, number theory. I will present a newly discovered connection to operator algebras, and more precisely to the structure of the von Neumann algebras of high rank arithmetic groups.
