Motives: a classical perspective

31.05.2023 15:15 - 16:15

Fernando Rodriguez-Villegas (ICTP)

Abstract: Grothendieck introduces the notion of a “motive” in a letter to Serre in 1964. He later described it as the concept "most charged with mystery" and "perhaps the most powerful instrument of discovery" that he had discovered. In this talk we will discuss how this crucial concept in arithmetic geometry relates to classical mathematics. As an illustrative example, we will show how a classical formula of Sonine and Gegenbauer for the integral of the product of Bessel functions has a motivic incarnation. The bulk of the talk will be about the very interesting families of motives connected to the classical hypergeometric series.

Organiser:

R. I. Boţ

Location:

Sky Lounge, 12. OG, OMP 1