Past seminars in 2009.



  • Wednesday February 04, 2009, 12:15 -14.00 in B71

    Marcin Marciniak , University of Gdansk:

    "A remark on extremal k-positive map"


  • Monday February 16, 2009, 13:00 -14.00 in B71

    David Evans , University of Cardiff):

    "Subfactors and their spectral measures "


  • Wednesday, March 11, 12.30-13.30, in room B71

    Enrico Laeng, Politecnico di Milano (Italy),:

    "Evaluating best constants for linear and sub-linear operators. Recent results and insights into some old open problems."

    Abstract: It can be challenging to evaluate the exact norms of an operator which is bounded on various spaces indexed by a parameter (e.g., L^p as p varies). We will present a novel approach, based on rearrangements, in the case of the Hardy-Littlewood Maximal operator. We will also discuss the case of the Hilbert transform and some operators related to it, e.g., the truncated Hilbert transform and the discrete Hilbert transform.


  • Wednesday August 26, 2009, 12:15 -14.00 in B71

    Nadia S. Larsen:

    "Co-universal C*-algebras for product systems "

    Abstract: For a quasi-lattice ordered pair $(G, P)$ in Nica's sense, with  $P$ a subsemigroup of the group $G$, and to a product system $X$ over $P$ of  right Hilbert bimodules over a $C^*$-algebra $A$, an analogue of the  Cuntz-Pimsner algebra of a single bimodule was introduced by Sims and Yeend;  this algebra $NO_X$ is universal for Cuntz-Nica-Pimsner representations of  the product system. In the talk I will describe how to associate a  co-universal $C^*$-algebra to $X$, show that it plays a crucial role in  establishing gauge-invariant uniqueness results, which roughly describe  faithfulness of representations of $NO_X$ in terms of faithfulness of their  restriction to the coefficient algebra $A$ and invariance under a canonical  gauge-coaction, and argue that this new object is a kind of reduced crossed  product. This is joint work with T. Carlsen, A. Sims and S. Vittadello. 


  • Wednesday September 02, 2009, 12:30 -14.00 in B71

    Marcelo Laca, U of Victoria, Canada:

    "Phase transition on the Toeplitz algebra of the affine semigroup over the natural numbers "


  • Wednesday September 16, 2009, 12:30 -14.00 in B71

    Erling Størmer:

    "Mapping cones of positive maps "


  •  Wednesday September 23, 2009, 12:30 -14.00 in B71

    Roberto Conti, University of Rome:

    "Permutation automorphisms of Cuntz algebras O_n"

    Abstract: The class of Cuntz algebras appears naturally in several contexts and have consequently been thoroughly investigated in the last decades from different points of view. The main purpose of the talk will be to present some of our recent results (obtained jointly with W. Szymanski and J. Kimberley), where we construct and initiate a classification of so-called permutation automorphisms of O_n (2 ² n). The talk will be essentially self-contained and aimed to be accessible to everybody with a basic knowledge of operator algebras. 


  • Wednesday September 30, 2009, 12:30 -14.00 in B71

    Erik Alfsen:

    "Decomposition of separable states "


  • Wednesday November 04, 2009, 12:15 -14.00 in B71

    Sergei Neshveyev:

    "Operator algebras and the Ramanujan-Petersson conjecture (after F. Radulescu) "

    Abstract:I will talk about a recent paper by Radulescu  http://arxiv.org/abs/0802.3548 on the famous conjecture in the title.


  • Wednesday November 11, 2009, 12:30 -14.15 in B71

    Jacob Shotwell, NTNU:

    "Ideal structure of higher-rank graph algebras"

    Abstract: Higher-rank graph C*-algebras were introduced by Kumjian and Pask as generalizations of the higher-rank Cuntz-Krieger algebras and, more generally, directed graph C*-algebras.  This talk will introduce the basic definitions and results concerning higher-rank graph C*-algebras and introduce some results concerning their primitive ideal structure. This work follows a strategy similar to that established by Bates, Hong, Raeburn, and Szymanski for directed graph algebras.


  •  Monday November 30, 2009, 14:15 -16.00 in B63

    George Elliott, University of Toronto, Canada:

    "The surprising renaissance of the Cuntz semigroup "


  • Wednesday December 02, 2009, 12:15 -14.00 in B71

    Erik Bedos:

    "On primitivity and full group C*-algebras"

    Abstract: This is joint work with Tron Omland (NTNU). We will discuss the problem of determining when the full group C*-algebra C*(G) of a countable discrete group G is primitive, that is, has a faithful irreducible representation. This problem is open for non-amenable groups. When G = PSL(n, Z), n >1, we will explain why C*(G) is primitive if and only if n = 2, in which case we can construct an infinite family of faithful irreducible representations. We will also sketch the proof that C*(G) is primitive whenever G is the free product of two non-trivial amenable groups not both of order two. 


  • Wednesday December 09, 2009, 12:15 -14.00 in B71

    Amin Dilawar Malik:

    "Quantum Principal Bundles and Symmetric Spaces"


  • Wednesday December 16, 2009, 12:15 -14.00 in B70

    Anders Hansen , University of Cambridge, UK:

    "Compressed Sensing in Hilbert Space"

    Abstract: Compressed Sensing is a great tool for solving  inverse problems. However, the current theory covers only  inverse problems in finite dimensions. In this talk I will show  how the theory by Candes and Tao can be extended to include  problems in general Hilbert spaces. The tools required come  from probability, operator theory and geometry of Banach  spaces. I'll give an introduction to what is already known and  discuss some of the quite demanding open questions.