Pure Math Colloquium

Monday, March 7, 2016 4:00 pm - 4:00 pm EST (GMT -05:00)
Doron Puder, I.A.S Princeton

"Word Measures on Groups"

Let w be a word in the free group on k generators, and let G be
a finite (compact) group. The word w induces a measure on G by
substituting the letters of w with k independent uniformly
(respectively Haar) random elements of G and evaluating the
product.

I will explain some of the motivation for the study of word measures,
both from the free group side and from the finite/compact groups side.
I will also explain some properties of word-measure, give examples
and state conjectures. As much as time permits, I will describe recent
results regarding word measures on symmetric groups (joint with
Ori Parzanchevski) and word measures on unitary groups (joint with
Michael Magee).

MC 5501

Refreshments will be served at 3:30pm in MC 5403.  All are welcome!