What's Algebraic Lie Theory about?
Lie theory has profound connections to many areas of pure and applied mathematics and mathematical physics. In the 1950s, the original "analytic" theory was extended so that it also makes sense over arbitrary algebraically closed fields, in particular, fields of positive characteristic. Understanding fundamental objects such as Lie algebras, quantum groups, reductive groups over finite or p-adic fields and Hecke algebras of various kinds, as well as their representation theory, are the central themes of "Algebraic Lie Theory".
A driving force has always been the abundance of challenging, yet very basic problems, like finding explicit character formulae for representations. The introduction of geometric methods (in the 1970s) has revolutionized the field. It led to a flow of new ideas between several disciplines, and produced spectacular advances. The ideas of "geometrization" and "categorification" now play a fundamental role in the development of the subject. New structures continue to arise from connections with other areas of mathematics and mathematical physics, like the emerging theory of W-algebras.
Read more at: www.newton.ac.uk/programmes/ALT/
