Professor Peter Sarnak
Princeton

Photos of the lecture

Date: Monday 15 August
Time: 18:00-19:00
Location: Laby Theatre, David Caro Building, University of Melbourne (map)

Professor Sarnak is a major figure in modern analytic number theory, with research interests also in analysis and mathematical physics. He has received many awards for his research including the Polya prize in 1998, the Ostrowski prize in 2001, the Conant prize in 2003 and the Cole prize in 2005.

Randomness in Number Theory

By way of concrete examples we discuss the dichotomy that in number theory the basic phenomena are either very structured or if not then they are random. The models for randomness for different problems can be quite unexpected and understanding, and establishing the randomness is often the key issue. Conversely the fact that certain number-theoretic quantities behave randomly is a powerful source for the construction of much sought-after pseudo-random objects.