2000 Bowen Lectures

Don ZagierThe 2000 Bowen Lectures will be delivered by Don Zagier on October 10, 11, and 12.

Department of Mathematics, University of California, Berkeley, presents

The 2000 Bowen Lectures
Don Zagier
Scientific Member and Director
Max Planck Institute for Mathematics
Bonn, Germany
and
Professor of Mathematics
University of Utrecht, Netherlands

"Periods and Special Values of L-Functions"
Tuesday, October 10

Sibley Auditorium - 4:10pm-5:00pm
Wednesday, October 11
100 Lewis Hall - 4:10pm-5:00pm
Thursday, October 12
Sibley Auditorium - 4:10pm-5:00pm

A "period" is a number which can be expressed as the integral of an algebraic function over an algebraic domain, like pi, log 2, or zeta(3). This class of numbers, far larger than the class of algebraic numbers but still countable and in some sense algorithmically accessible, plays an important role in many questions of number theory and algebraic geometry. The lectures will discuss some of these, most notably the conjectured and known expressions for special values of arithmetic L-functions and their derivatives in terms of periods, with an emphasis on examples and on open problems.

Reception in 1015 Evans after Tuesday's lecture.