Date & Time:Friday, July 26, 2013, 15:30-16:30
Venue: Ramanujan Hall
Title:Projective Modules and Various Avatars of the Euler Characteristic
Speaker:Sarang Sane, University of Kansas
Abstract: We trace a very brief history of the Euler class, beginning with the Euler characteristic in graph theory/combinatorics through its relation with the obstruction class in topology, finally get to the more recent notion of the Euler class in algebra/geometry and its use as an obstruction to the splitting of projective modules. This recent notion has two approaches, Euler class groups and Chow- Witt groups. We will briefly discuss the first approach and hope to delve deeper into the second approach. .