Colloquium

Dr. Asher Auel
Emory University

Thursday, November 19, 2009
4:15p.m.—Manchester Hall, Rm 016

Quaternions and conic sections: from algebra to geometry

Abstract: When Sir William Rowan Hamilton discovered the quaternions (the non-commutative big brother of the complex numbers) in 1843, he had in mind coordinates for 3- and 4-dimensional space.  Little could he have imagined that in the 20th century, quaternion algebras would play an important role in the algebraic theory of fields (via the Milnor conjecture) as well as in formulations of quantum mechanics (via the Pauli and Dirac matrices).  In this talk, we'll discuss the history of the quaternions and their role in the geometry of spheres and in the classification of conic sections over general fields.

Refreshments will be served at 3:30 p.m. in Manchester Hall Room 336.

Host contact parslerj@wfu.edu