PIMS/UBC Distinguished Colloquium: Gregory Margulis (Yale University)

Abstract:

Homogeneous dynamics is another name for the theory of flows on homogeneous spaces, or homogeneous flows. The study of homogeoeus flows has been attracting considerable attention for the last 40-50 years. During the last three decades, it has been realized that some problems in number theory and, in particular in Diophantine approximation, can be solved using mathods from the theory of homogeneous flows. The purpose of the talk is to give examples of interactions between number theory and homogeneous dynamics; mostly only formulatiopns will be given, but there will be also very brief description of some proofs.