MIT Topology Seminar: Elliptic Cohomology and Derived Algebraic Geometry (Jacob Lurie)

MIT Topology Seminar

Monday, March 14, 2005
Room 2-131, 4:30pm

Jacob Lurie will speak on:

Elliptic Cohomology and Derived Algebraic Geometry

Abstract: I will begin by reviewing the classical point of view on elliptic cohomology, leading up to the construction (due to Hopkins and Miller) of the spectrum tmf of "topological modular forms". I will then introduce the language of derived algebraic geometry, and explain how it can be applied to give a new (and easier) construction of tmf, together with a moduli-theoretic interpretation of this theory in terms of "derived elliptic curves".