Global/Local Conjectures in Representation Theory of Finite Groups (14w5024)

The Banff International Research Station will host the "Global/Local Conjectures in Representation Theory of Finite Groups" workshop from March 16th to March 21st, 2014.

Group Theory is essentially the theory of
symmetry for mathematical and physical systems, with
major impact in diverse areas of mathematics.
The Representation Theory of Finite Groups is a central area of Group
Theory, with many fundamental problems, starting from a list of
several deep conjectures formulated by Richard Brauer in 1963,
and including subsequent conjectures of John McKay, Jonathan Alperin,
Michel Broue, and others. Many of these conjectures relate global
and local properties of finite groups, and all of them remain open
up to date.
The classification of finite simple groups raised the hope that one
should be able to reduce some of the aforementioned conjectures to
various statements about simple groups and thus provide a way to
prove the conjectures. This hope has recently
materialized when several of these conjectures have been reduced to questions about
finite simple groups, by work of
M. Isaacs, Malle, and G. Navarro, Navarro and P.H. Tiep,
and B. Sp"ath).
The proposed meeting will bring together the leading experts and
young researchers in the representation theory of finite
groups and algebraic groups to exploit the substantial recent advances on these
fundamental conjectures and facilitate
significant progress along the lines of all of them.
We expect that by the time of the meeting, further substantial progress on
the remaining steps towards proving these
conjectures will have been achieved.

The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) is a collaborative Canada-US-Mexico venture that provides an environment for creative interaction as well as the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the Mathematical Sciences, with related disciplines and with industry. The research station is located at The Banff Centre in Alberta and is supported by Canada's Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Alberta's Advanced Education and Technology, and Mexico's Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT).