NSF Org:	DMS Division Of Mathematical Sciences
Recipient:	TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date:	December 21, 2018
Latest Amendment Date:	December 21, 2018
Award Number:	1900856
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	pamela gorkin DMS  Division Of Mathematical Sciences MPS  Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Start Date:	February 15, 2019
End Date:	January 31, 2020 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$25,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$25,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2019 = $25,000.00
History of Investigator:	Kenneth Dykema (Principal Investigator) ken.dykema@math.tamu.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	Texas A&M University 400 HARVEY MITCHELL PKY S STE 300 COLLEGE STATION TX  US  77845-4375 (979)862-6777
Sponsor Congressional District:	10
Primary Place of Performance:	Texas A&M University Main Campus 3368 TAMU College Station TX  US  77843-3368
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	10
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	JF6XLNB4CDJ5
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s):	ANALYSIS PROGRAM
Primary Program Source:	01001920DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):	7556
Program Element Code(s):	128100
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.049

ABSTRACT

This award provides funding for US participation in the conference that will be held during the entire month of March 2019, at the Centre de Recherches Mathematiques(CRM) in Montreal, Canada. The conference focuses on recent developments in Free Probability Theory, which is deeply related to topics in several areas of Analysis, including Operator Algebras and Random Matrices, and also to other areas of mathematics such as Combinatorics. Free Probability was created in the 1980s by Dan Voiculescu. His fundamental insight was to treat phenomenon in operator algebras related to free groups in a noncommutative probabilistic framework, with his notion of freeness taking the place of independence. Free Probability Theory has developed extensively; the parallels with usual probability theory are quite far reaching. This has led to fundamental insights and far reaching developments in diverse areas, including Operator Algebras and Random Matrices. The program at CRM includes two workshops, one on theoretical aspects and another on applied aspects of Free Probability.

A number of distinguished mathematicians have agreed to attend and speak at this conference. This award gives early career researchers, members of underrepresented groups, researchers not funded by NSF and the like an opportunity to attend and participate in this conference. The organizing committee will strive to make this funding opportunity known to target groups through a number of different activities. More information is available at: http://www.crm.math.ca/crm50/en/march-1-31-2019-new-developments-in-free-probability-and-applications/.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

The grant was used to reimburse (partially) travel and local expenses of US-based participants in the month-long program "New Developments in Free Probability and Applications" held during the month of March, 2019, at the Centre de Recherche Mathematiques (CRM) in Montreal. 

Free probability is a rich theory for understanding and manipulating the distributions of non-commuting random variables, in particular the large N limit of many widely used random matrix models.  The theory began 35 years ago with Voiculescu's discovery of the free central limit theorem and free independence.  Since those beginnings, free probability theory has grown into a mature theory with important connections with von Neumann algebras, harmonic analysis, random matrices, combinatorics and problems in quantum information theory, wireless communications and mathematical physics.  The continuing discovery of many deep analogues with classical probability has been a source of amazement to the practitioners of the subject, and even to the experts of the theory.

The program at the CRM brought together researchers leading the new developments in free probability and it applications.  The program included two intensive week-long workshops and overlapped with the Aisenstadt Lectures, which were delivered by Alice Guionnet and were thematically related to the topics of the program.  The workshops were entitled "Free Probability, the theory, its extensions" and "Free Probability, the applied perspective."  Mathematicians were present and discussions and collaborations and talks were ongoing throughout the duration of the program.

The number of participans supported was 22, including 10 graduate students, 7 postdoctoral researchers, and 5 assistant professors.  11 of these were speakers either during the workshops or as part of the activities that were held during the weeks when there were no workshops.

Last Modified: 02/04/2020
Modified by: Kenneth J Dykema

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