Speaker:
Clifton Cunningham (University of Calgary)

Title:
The elementary particles of number theory

Abstract:
The Langlands program has the same historical point of departure as
quantum field theory: use group representation theory to classify
observed, fundamental objects. In the Langlands program, the `observed,
fundamental objects' are L-functions, especially Artin L- functions, and
the group representations are automorphic representations, generalizing
modular forms. In this talk I will give a ridiculously simplistic
overview of the Langlands program, explain how it is aimed at some
deceptively simple problems in number theory, and report on recent
progress.