LMS General Meeting and LMS Lecture 2021
LMS General Meeting & LMS Lecture 2021
The lectures are aimed at a general mathematical audience. All interested, whether LMS members or not, are most welcome to attend this event.
Programme (all timings are in BST)
3.30 pm Opening of the meeting and LMS Business (open to all)
Election of the LMS Honorary Members in 2021
Announcement of the 2021 LMS Prize winners
4.00 pm LMS Lecture 2021: Emily Riehl (Johns Hopkins University)
Elements of ∞-Category Theory
Abstract
Confusingly for the uninitiated, experts in weak infinite-dimensional category theory make use of different definitions of an ∞-category, and theorems in the ∞-categorical literature are often proven "analytically", in reference to the combinatorial specifications of a particular model. In this talk, we present a new point of view on the foundations of ∞-category theory, which allows us to develop the basic theory of ∞-categories --- adjunctions, limits and colimits, co/cartesian fibrations, and pointwise Kan extensions --- "synthetically" starting from axioms that describe an ∞-cosmos, the infinite-dimensional category in which ∞-categories live as objects. We demonstrate that the theorems proven in this manner are "model-independent", i.e., invariant under change of model. Moreover, there is a formal language with the feature that any statement about ∞-categories that is expressible in that language is also invariant under change of model, regardless of whether it is proven through synthetic or analytic techniques. This is joint work with Dominic Verity.
United Kingdom