Horn Conjecture for finite von Neumann algebras II

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Monday, September 29, 2008 - 2:00pm for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 255
Speaker
Wing Suet Li – School of Mathematics, Georgia Tech
Organizer
Plamen Iliev
The Horn inequalities give a characterization of eigenvalues of self-adjoint n by n matrices A, B, C with A+B+C=0. The proof requires powerful tools from algebraic geometry. In this talk I will talk about our recent result of these inequalities that are indeed valid for self-adjoint operators of an arbitrary finite factors. Since in this setting there is no readily available machinery from algebraic geometry, we are forced to look for an analysts friendly proof. A (complete) matricial form of our result is known to imply an affirmative answer to the Connes' embedding problem. Geometers especially welcome!