Joe Allen

Homology with action figures

"Homological methods in representation theory" is a phrase I keep seeing because it's my current project title. Over the last eighteen months, I have slowly begun to understand what this phrase means. I hope to explain at least some of it within fifty(ish) minutes.

In this talk, I intend to sketch some of the common tools in representation theory [of finite-dimensional algebras] in a broad, light-hearted way. This will include an outline of the homological perspective on rep theory, the questions it asks and the insight it affords.

This informal, picture-heavy talk will only assume the definition of a vector space.

KEYWORDS: representation theory of finite-dimensional algebras; exactness; injective resolutions; longstanding conjectures (that I haven't answered)