Lecture series on algebraic stacks
Monday 24 November, 11.30 am
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Venue: Ramanujan Hall
Host: Sudarshan Gurjar
Speaker: Nitin Nitsure
Affiliation: TIFR, Mumbai (Retd)
Title: An Introduction to Gerbes
Abstract: Gerbes (for good reason) have become very fashionable objects in algebra, algebraic geometry, differential topology, and physics. Algebraists come across them for example in their study of Brauer groups (see Milne `Etale Cohomology' Chapter 4). Differential geometers study connections on these and their relation to characteristic classes. These feature in the works, for example, of Hitchin, Brylinski, Breen, etc. I will not be able to say anything about the physics applications. Gerbes are very important (in many ways) in Algebraic Geometry. This lecture will give an introduction to the subject. The basic technology of gerbes involves Stacks, and that is why this talk is in the ongoing series on Algebraic Stacks.