US-Austria Workshop: Tensor Categories in Mathematics and Physics

0406198Huang当张量范畴的语言被用作一个统一的概念时，数学和物理学不同领域的各种最新发展都是相关的。 当一个数学问题需要有效地处理一个或几个乘积时，或者当一个理论物理问题需要对可能的耦合进行简明描述时，张量范畴就会自然出现。 因此，张量范畴为许多有趣的问题提供了一种自然的统一语言。使用这个框架有解开结构平行的额外好处，因此往往允许一个应用的结果和技术，以一个给定的问题，最初是在一个不同的context.The PI是一个程序，张量类别在数学和物理，将于2004年春季和初夏在维也纳的欧文薛定谔研究所的共同组织者。 该计划的目的是汇集研究人员在数学不同的主题工作（如量子群，链接不变量，顶点代数或子因子）和物理学（如拓扑和共形场论，弦理论，或量子理论的算子代数方法），其中张量范畴发挥作用，美国国家科学基金会的捐款将主要用于支持美国研究生、初级教师、妇女和代表性不足的少数群体成员参加该项目。 积极参与这样的计划无疑将对他们未来的职业生涯产生重要影响。 该计划的想法是鼓励不同背景的数学家和数学物理学家之间的互动。 特别是，该计划的主要目标之一是使大量的数学结果和概念，准备使用访问理论物理界的更大一部分。 很明显，数学家和物理学家都可以从不同学科之间的交流和开发统一的语言中受益。

0406198HuangVarious recent developments in different areas of mathematics and physics turn out to be related when the language of tensor categories is used as a unifying concept. Tensor categories emerge naturally whenever a mathematical problem needs an efficient treatment of one or several products," or when a problem in theoretical physics requires a concise description of possible couplings. As a consequence, tensor categories provide a natural unifying language for many interesting problems. Using this framework has the additional benefit of unraveling structural parallels and therefore often allows one to apply results and techniques to a given problem that were originally developed in a different context.The PI is a co-organizer of a program, Tensor Categories in Mathematics and Physics, to take place in the spring and early summer of 2004 at the Erwin Schroedinger Institute in Vienna. The purpose of this program to bring together researchers working on different topics in mathematics (such as quantum groups, link invariants, vertex algebras, or subfactors) and physics (such as topological and conformal field theory, string theory, or operator algebraic approaches to quantum theory) in which tensor categories are playing a role, or can be expected to play a role in the future.The contribution from NSF will be primarily used to support graduate students, junior faculty, women and members of underrepresented minority groups in the United States to attend the program. Active participation in such a program will undoubtedly have an important impact on their future careers. The idea of the program is to encourage interaction between mathematicians and mathematical physicists of different backgrounds. In particular, one of the main goals of the program is to make a wealth of mathematical results and concepts that are ready to use accessible to a larger part of the theoretical physics community. It is clear that mathematicians and physicists can all benefit from communicating results between the various disciplines and from developing a unified language.