Mathematics Colloquium

Speaker: Prof. Ravi Raghunathan

Date: Friday, 9 September 2022

Duration: 4.00-5.00 pm

Venue: Ramanujan Hall, Mathematics Department, Room 214

Title: Sphere packing, the Uncertainty Principle, $E_8$ and Fourier 
interpolation on the real line

Abstract: The talk will focus on two theorems of M. Viazovska who was 
awarded the Fields medal in Helsinki earlier this year. The first 
theorem resolved the problem of sphere packing in eight dimensions, 
while the closely related second theorem (proved jointly with D. 
Radchenko) establishes a new "Fourier interpolation" result for even 
Schwartz functions on the real line.

The first half of the talk should be completely accessible to anyone 
with a first course in linear algebra and multivariable calculus (MA 
109, MA 111, MA 106), and thus to most undergraduate students at IIT. 
The second half will require some familiarity with basic complex 
analysis (MA 205).