One reason I call this site a “blag” and not a “blog” is that I’m always late.
For example, I’m finally typing up the group-theory homework assignment which Ben gave last Monday (and which will be due next Monday). During our seminar over in BU territory, we discussed the relations among the Lie groups SU(2) and SO(3) and the manifolds S3 and RP3. Problems will be given below the fold.
This evening at 17 o’clock, or shortly thereafter, we will be meeting in Boston University mathematics territory to discuss group theory. Ben will be leading the discussion, poking us to consider the various transformations of the type
What are the different structures of interest which these mappings can preserve? What types of maps preserve distances, angles, areas, orientation (chirality), or topological properties? Notes for past group-theory sessions are available in PDF format, or as a gzipped tarball for those who wish to play with the original LaTeX source.
Cubicism, Not group theory. If ignorant of the almighty
Time Cube Creation Truth,
you deserve to be killed.
Killing you is not immoral –
but justified to save life on
Earth for future generations.
Yesterday evening, we had our first seminar session on the group theory track, led by Ben Allen. We covered the definition of groups, semigroups and monoids, and we developed several examples by transforming a pentagon. After a brief interlude on discrete topology and — no snickers, please — pointlesstopology, Ben introduced the concept of generators and posed several homework questions intended to lead us into the study of Lie groups and Lie algebras.
Notes are available in PDF format, or as a gzipped tarball for those who wish to play with the original LaTeX source. Likewise, the current notes for the entropy and information-theory seminar track (the Friday sessions) are available in both PDF and tarball flavors.
