Algebra Seminar: Nigel Higson -- The Mackey bijection

Nigel Higson (Penn State) will speak in the algebra seminar next week.  We will go out
for lunch after the talk.  

When: Friday Sept 6, 12-1pm 

Where: Carslaw 275 

Title: The Mackey bijection 

Abstract: The Mackey bijection identifies irreducible, usually infinite-dimensional,
representations of a real reductive group G with the irreducible representations of the
Cartan motion group associated to G.  Since the latter are quite easy to determine,
whereas the former are not, the bijection is a statement of some substance.  At the
present time, the bijection seems to be best viewed from the perspective of analysis,
tempered representations, and even C*-algebras (sorry).  But the bijection, though
proved, is far from fully understood.  I shall try to give an introduction to the topic
that is suitable for an algebra seminar.