Departmental Colloquium
Michael Aschbacher
California Institute of Technology
Fusion systems and simple groups
Abstract: Fusion systems were introduced by Luis Puig as a tool in modular representation theory.
Later homotopy theorists became interested in the work; in particular Broto, Levi,
and Oliver defined the notion of a p-local finite group (consisting of a saturated fusion
system and a linking system), and Levi and Oliver proved the existence of the exotic
Solomon-Benson 2-local finite groups, which in some ways are analogous to sporadic
finite simple groups.
Most of the talk will consist of an introduction to fusion systems, with technicalities
suppressed whenever possible. Near the end of the talk, I'll speculate about the possibility
of simplifying the proof of the classification of the finite simple groups using fusion
systems.
Friday September 9, 2011 at 3:00 PM in SEO 636