Tag: Connes

Andre Weil on the Riemann hypothesis

Published October 15, 2008 by lievenlb

Don’t be fooled by introductory remarks to the effect that ‘the field with one element was conceived by Jacques Tits half a century ago, etc. etc.’

While this is a historic fact, and, Jacques Tits cannot be given enough credit for bringing a touch of surrealism into mathematics, but this is not the main drive for people getting into F_un, today.

There is a much deeper and older motivation behind most papers published recently on $\mathbb{F}_1 $. Few of the authors will be willing to let you in on the secret, though, because if they did, it would sound much too presumptuous…

So, let’s have it out into the open : F_un mathematics’ goal is no less than proving the Riemann Hypothesis.

And even then, authors hide behind a smoke screen. The ‘official’ explanation being “we would like to copy Weil’s proof of the Riemann hypothesis in the case of function fields of curves over finite fields, by considering spec(Z) as a ‘curve’ over an algebra ‘dessous’ Z namely $\mathbb{F}_1 $”. Alas, at this moment, none of the geometric approaches over the field with one element can make this stick.

Believe me for once, the main Jugendtraum of most authors is to get a grip on cyclotomy over $\mathbb{F}_1 $. It is no accident that Connes makes a dramatic pauze in his YouTubeVideo to let the viewer see this equation on the backboard

$\mathbb{F}_{1^n} \otimes_{\mathbb{F}_1} \mathbb{Z} = \mathbb{Z}[x]/(x^n-1) $

But, what is the basis of all this childlike enthusiasm? A somewhat concealed clue is given in the introduction of the Kapranov-Smirnov paper. They write :

“In [?] the affine line over $\mathbb{F}_1 $ was considered; it consists formally of 0 and all the roots of unity. Put slightly differently, this leads to the consideration of “algebraic extensions” of $\mathbb{F}_1 $. By analogy with genuine finite fields we would like to think that there is exactly one such extension of any given degree n, denote it by $\mathbb{F}_{1^n} $.

Of course, $\mathbb{F}_{1^n} $ does not exist in a rigorous sense, but we can think if a scheme $X $ contains n-th roots of unity, then it is defined over $\mathbb{F}_{1^n} $, so that there is a morphism

$p_X~:~X \rightarrow spec(\mathbb{F}_{1^n} $

The point of view that adjoining roots of unity is analogous to the extension of the base field goes back, at least to Weil (Lettre a Artin, Ouvres, vol 1) and Iwasawa…“

Okay, so rush down to your library, pick out the first of three volumes of Andre Weil’s collected works, look up his letter to Emil Artin written on July 10th 1942 (19 printed pages!), and head for the final section. Weil writes :

“Our proof of the Riemann hypothesis (in the function field case, red.) depended upon the extension of the function-fields by roots of unity, i.e. by constants; the way in which the Galois group of such extensions operates on the classes of divisors in the original field and its extensions gives a linear operator, the characteristic roots (i.e. the eigenvalues) of which are the roots of the zeta-function.

On a number field, the nearest we can get to this is by adjunction of $l^n $-th roots of unity, $l $ being fixed; the Galois group of this infinite extension is cyclic, and defines a linear operator on the projective limit of the (absolute) class groups of those successive finite extensions; this should have something to do with the roots of the zeta-function of the field. However, our extensions are ramified (but only at a finite number of places, viz. the prime divisors of $l $). Thus a preliminary study of similar problems in function-fields might enable one to guess what will happen in number-fields.”

A few years later, in 1947, he makes this a bit more explicit in his marvelous essay “L’avenir des mathematiques” (The future of mathematics). Weil is still in shell-shock after the events of the second WW, and writes in beautiful archaic French sentences lasting forever :

“L’hypothèse de Riemann, après qu’on eu perdu l’espoir de la démontrer par les méthodes de la théorie des fonctions, nous apparaît aujourd’hui sous un jour nouveau, qui la montre inséparable de la conjecture d’Artin sur les fonctions L, ces deux problèmes étant deux aspects d’une même question arithmético-algébrique, où l’étude simultanée de toutes les extensions cyclotomiques d’un corps de nombres donné jouera sans doute le rôle décisif.

L’arithmétique gausienne gravitait autour de la loi de réciprocité quadratique; nous savons maintenant que celle-ci n’est qu’un premier example, ou pour mieux dire le paradigme, des lois dites “du corps de classe”, qui gouvernent les extensions abéliennes des corps de nobres algébriques; nous savons formuler ces lois de manière à leur donner l’aspect d’un ensemble cohérent; mais, si plaisante à l’œil que soit cette façade, nous ne savons si elle ne masque pas des symmétries plus cachées.

Les automorphismes induits sur les groupes de classes par les automorphismes du corps, les propriétés des restes de normes dans les cas non cycliques, le passage à la limite (inductive ou projective) quand on remplace le corps de base par des extensions, par example cyclotomiques, de degré indéfiniment croissant, sont autant de questions sur lesquelles notre ignorance est à peu près complète, et dont l’étude contient peut-être la clef de l’hypothese de Riemann; étroitement liée à celles-ci est l’étude du conducteur d’Artin, et en particulier, dans le cas local, la recherche de la représentation dont la trace s’exprime au moyen des caractères simples avec des coefficients égaux aux exposants de leurs conducteurs.

Ce sont là quelques-unes des directions qu’on peut et qu’on doit songer à suivre afin de pénétrer dans le mystère des extensions non abéliennes; il n’est pas impossible que nous touchions là à des principes d’une fécondité extraordinaire, et que le premier pas décisif une fois fait dans cette voie doive nous ouvrir l’accès à de vastes domaines dont nous soupçonnons à peine l’existence; car jusqu’ici, pour amples que soient nos généralisations des résultats de Gauss, on ne peut dire que nus les ayons vraiment dépassés.”

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noncommutative F_un geometry (1)

Published October 13, 2008 by lievenlb

It is perhaps surprising that Alain Connes and Katia Consani, two icons of noncommutative geometry, restrict themselves to define commutative algebraic geometry over $\mathbb{F}_1 $, the field with one element.

My guess of why they stop there is as good as anyone’s. Perhaps they felt that there is already enough noncommutativity in Soule’s gadget-approach (the algebra $\mathcal{A}_X $ as in this post may very well be noncommutative). Perhaps they were only interested in the Bost-Connes system which can be entirely encoded in their commutative $\mathbb{F}_1 $-geometry. Perhaps they felt unsure as to what the noncommutative scheme of an affine noncommutative algebra might be. Perhaps …

Remains the fact that their approach screams for a noncommutative extension. Their basic object is a covariant functor

$N~:~\mathbf{abelian} \rightarrow \mathbf{sets} \qquad A \mapsto N(A) $

from finite abelian groups to sets, together with additional data to the effect that there is a unique minimal integral scheme associated to $N $. In a series of posts on the Connes-Consani paper (starting here) I took some care of getting rid of all scheme-lingo and rephrasing everything entirely into algebras. But then, this set-up can be extended verbatim to noncommuative $\mathbb{F}_1 $-geometry, which should start from a covariant functor

$N~:~\mathbf{groups} \rightarrow \mathbf{sets} $

from all finite groups to sets. Let’s recall quickly what the additional info should be making this functor a noncommutative (affine) F_un scheme :

There should be a finitely generated $\mathbb{C} $-algebra $R $ together with a natural transformation (the ‘evaluation’)

$e~:~N \rightarrow \mathbf{maxi}(R) \qquad N(G) \mapsto Hom_{\mathbb{C}-alg}(R, \mathbb{C} G) $

(both $R $ and the group-algebra $\mathbb{C} G $ may be noncommutative). The pair $(N, \mathbf{maxi}(R)) $ is then called a gadget and there is an obvious notion of ‘morphism’ between gadgets.

The crucial extra ingredient is an affine $\mathbb{Z} $-algebra (possibly noncommutative) $S $
such that $N $ is a subfunctor of $\mathbf{mini}(S)~:~G \mapsto Hom_{\mathbb{Z}-alg}(S,\mathbb{Z} G) $ together with the following universal property :

any affine $\mathbb{Z} $-algebra $T $ having a gadget-morphism $~(N,\mathbf{maxi}(R)) \rightarrow (\mathbf{mini}(T),\mathbf{maxi}(T \otimes_{\mathbb{Z}} \mathbb{C})) $ comes from a $\mathbb{Z} $-algebra morphism $T \rightarrow S $. (If this sounds too cryptic for you, please read the series on C-C mentioned before).

So, there is no problem in defining noncommutative affine F_un-schemes. However, as with any generalization, this only makes sense provided (a) we get something new and (b) we have interesting examples, not covered by the restricted theory.

At first sight we do not get something new as in the only example we did in the C-C-series (the forgetful functor) it is easy to prove (using the same proof as given in this post) that the forgetful-functor $\mathbf{groups} \rightarrow \mathbf{sets} $ still has as its integral form the integral torus $\mathbb{Z}[x,x^{-1}] $. However, both theories quickly diverge beyond this example.

For example, consider the functor

$\mathbf{groups} \rightarrow \mathbf{sets} \qquad G \mapsto G \times G $

Then, if we restrict to abelian finite groups $\mathbf{abelian} $ it is easy to see (again by a similar argument) that the two-dimensional integer torus $\mathbb{Z}[x,y,x^{-1},y^{-1}] $ is the correct integral form. However, this algebra cannot be the correct form for the functor on the category of all finite groups as any $\mathbb{Z} $-algebra map $\phi~:~\mathbb{Z}[x,y,x^{-1},y^{-1}] \rightarrow \mathbb{Z} G $ determines (and is determined by) a pair of commuting units in $\mathbb{Z} G $, so the above functor can not be a subfunctor if we allow non-Abelian groups.

But then, perhaps there isn’t a minimal integral $\mathbb{Z} $-form for this functor? Well, yes there is. Take the free group in two letters (that is, all words in noncommuting $x,y,x^{-1} $ and $y^{-1} $ satisfying only the trivial cancellation laws between a letter and its inverse), then the corresponding integral group-algebra $\mathbb{Z} \mathcal{F}_2 $ does the trick.

Again, the proof-strategy is the same. Given a gadget-morphism we have an algebra map $f~:~T \mapsto \mathbb{C} \mathcal{F}_2 $ and we have to show, using the universal property that the image of $T $ is contained in the integral group-algebra $\mathbb{Z} \mathcal{F}_2 $. Take a generator
$z $ of $T $ then the degree of the image $f(z) $ is bounded say by $d $ and we can always find a subgroup $H \subset \mathcal{F}_2 $ such that $\mathcal{F}_2/H $ is a fnite group and the quotient map $\mathbb{C} \mathcal{F}_2 \rightarrow \mathbb{C} \mathcal{F}_2/H $ is injective on the subspace spanned by all words of degree strictly less than $d+1 $. Then, the usual diagram-chase finishes the proof.

What makes this work is that the free group $\mathcal{F}_2 $ has ‘enough’ subgroups of finite index, a property it shares with many interesting discrete groups. Whence the blurb-message :

if the integers $\mathbb{Z} $ see a discrete group $\Gamma $, then the field $\mathbb{F}_1 $ sees its profinite completion $\hat{\Gamma} = \underset{\leftarrow}{lim}~\Gamma/ H $

So, yes, we get something new by extending the Connes-Consani approach to the noncommutative world, but do we have interesting examples? As “interesting” is a subjective qualification, we’d better invoke the authority-argument.

Alexander Grothendieck (sitting on the right, manifestly not disputing a vacant chair with Jean-Pierre Serre, drinking on the left (a marvelous picture taken by F. Hirzebruch in 1958)) was pushing the idea that profinite completions of arithmetical groups were useful in the study of the absolute Galois group $Gal(\overline{\mathbb{Q}}/\mathbb{Q}) $, via his theory of dessins d’enfants (children;s drawings).

In a previous life, I’ve written a series of posts on dessins d’enfants, so I’ll restrict here to the basics. A smooth projective $\overline{\mathbb{Q}} $-curve $X $ has a Belyi-map $X \rightarrow \mathbb{P}^1_{\overline{\mathbb{Q}}} $ ramified only in three points ${ 0,1,\infty } $. The “drawing” corresponding to $X $ is a bipartite graph, drawn on the Riemann surface $X_{\mathbb{C}} $ obtained by lifting the unit interval $[0,1] $ to $X $. As the absolute Galois group acts on all such curves (and hence on their corresponding drawings), the action of it on these dessins d’enfants may give us a way into the multiple mysteries of the absolute Galois group.

In his “Esquisse d’un programme” (Sketch of a program if you prefer to read it in English) he writes :

“C’est ainsi que mon attention s’est portée vers ce que j’ai appelé depuis la “géométrie algêbrique anabélienne”, dont le point de départ est justement une étude (pour le moment limitée à la caractéristique zéro) de l’action de groupe de Galois “absolus” (notamment les groupes $Gal(\overline{K}/K) $, ou $K $ est une extension de type fini du corps premier) sur des groupes fondamentaux géométriques (profinis) de variétés algébriques (définies sur $K $), et plus particulièrement (rompant avec une tradition bien enracinée) des groupes fondamentaux qui sont trés éloignés des groupes abéliens (et que pour cette raison je nomme “anabéliens”). Parmi ces groupes, et trés proche du groupe $\hat{\pi}_{0,3} $, il y a le compactifié profini du groupe modulaire $SL_2(\mathbb{Z}) $, dont le quotient par le centre $\pm 1 $ contient le précédent comme sous-groupe de congruence mod 2, et peut s’interpréter d’ailleurs comme groupe “cartographique” orienté, savoir celui qui classifie les cartes orientées triangulées (i.e. celles dont les faces des triangles ou des monogones).”

and a bit further, he writes :

“L’élément de structure de $SL_2(\mathbb{Z}) $ qui me fascine avant tout, est bien sur l’action extérieure du groupe de Galois $Gal(\overline{\mathbb{Q}}/\mathbb{Q}) $ sur le compactifié profini. Par le théorème de Bielyi, prenant les compactifiés profinis de sous-groupes d’indice fini de $SL_2(\mathbb{Z}) $, et l’action extérieure induite (quitte à passer également à un sous-groupe overt de $Gal(\overline{\mathbb{Q}},\mathbb{Q}) $), on trouve essentiellement les groupes fondamentaux de toutes les courbes algébriques définis sur des corps de nombres $K $, et l’action extérieure de $Gal(\overline{K}/K) $ dessus.”

So, is there a noncommutative affine variety over $\mathbb{F}_1 $ of which the unique minimal integral model is the integral group algebra of the modular group $\mathbb{Z} \Gamma $ (with $\Gamma = PSL_2(\mathbb{Z}) $? Yes, here it is

$N_{\Gamma}~:~\mathbf{groups} \rightarrow \mathbf{sets} \qquad G \mapsto G_2 \times G_3 $

where $G_n $ is the set of all elements of order $n $ in $G $. The reason behind this is that the modular group is the free group product $C_2 \ast C_3 $.

Fine, you may say, but all this is just algebra. Where is the noncommutative complex variety or the noncommutative integral scheme in all this? Well, we can introduce them too but as this post is already 1300 words long, I’ll better leave this for another time. In case you cannot stop thinking about it, here’s the short answer.

The complex noncommutative variety has as its ‘points’ all finite dimensional simple complex representations of the modular group, and the ‘points’ of the noncommutative $\mathbb{F}_1 $-scheme are exactly the (modular) dessins d’enfants…

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This week at F_un Mathematics (1)

Published October 11, 2008 by lievenlb

In case you haven’t noticed it yet : I’m not living here anymore.

My blogging is (at least for the moment) transfered to the F_un Mathematics blog which some prefer to call the “ceci n’est pas un corps”-blog, which is very fine with me.

Javier gave a talk at MPI on Soule’s approach to algebraic geometry over the elusive field with one element $\mathbb{F}_1 $ and wrote two posts about it The skeleton of Soule’s F_un geometry and Gadgets a la Soule. The rough idea being that a variety over the field with one element only acquires flesh after a base extension to $\mathbb{Z} $ and to cyclotomic integers.

I did some posts on a related (but conceptually somewhat easier) approach due to Alain Connes and Katia Consani. I’ve tried to explain their construction at the level of (mature) undergraduate students. So far, there are three posts part1, part2 and part3. Probably there is one more session to come in which I will explain why they need functors to graded sets.

In the weeks to come we plan to post about applications of this F_un-geometry to noncommutative geometry (the Bost-Connes system) and Grothendieck’s anabelian geometry (the theory of dessins d’enfant). I’ll try to leave a short account of the main posts here, but clearly you are invited to feed your feedreader this.

Perhaps I’ll return here for a week mid november to do some old-fashioned vacation blogging. I have to admit I did underestimate Numeo.fr. Rumours have it that our place is connected wirelessly to the web…

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Connes-Consani for undergraduates (3)

Published October 10, 2008 by lievenlb

A quick recap of last time. We are trying to make sense of affine varieties over the elusive field with one element $\mathbb{F}_1 $, which by Grothendieck’s scheme-philosophy should determine a functor

$\mathbf{nano}(N)~:~\mathbf{abelian} \rightarrow \mathbf{sets} \qquad A \mapsto N(A) $

from finite Abelian groups to sets, typically giving pretty small sets $N(A) $. Using the F_un mantra that $\mathbb{Z} $ should be an algebra over $\mathbb{F}_1 $ any $\mathbb{F}_1 $-variety determines an integral scheme by extension of scalars, as well as a complex variety (by extending further to $\mathbb{C} $). We have already connected the complex variety with the original functor into a gadget that is a couple $~(\mathbf{nano}(N),\mathbf{maxi}(R)) $ where $R $ is the coordinate ring of a complex affine variety $X_R $ having the property that every element of $N(A) $ can be realized as a $\mathbb{C} A $-point of $X_R $. Ringtheoretically this simply means that to every element $x \in N(A) $ there is an algebra map $N_x~:~R \rightarrow \mathbb{C} A $.

Today we will determine which gadgets determine an integral scheme, and do so uniquely, and call them the sought for affine schemes over $\mathbb{F}_1 $.

Let’s begin with our example : $\mathbf{nano}(N) = \underline{\mathbb{G}}_m $ being the forgetful functor, that is $N(A)=A $ for every finite Abelian group, then the complex algebra $R= \mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}] $ partners up to form a gadget because to every element $a \in N(A)=A $ there is a natural algebra map $N_a~:~\mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}] \rightarrow \mathbb{C} A $ defined by sending $x \mapsto e_a $. Clearly, there is an obvious integral form of this complex algebra, namely $\mathbb{Z}[x,x^{-1}] $ but we have already seen that this algebra represents the mini-functor

$\mathbf{min}(\mathbb{Z}[x,x^{-1}])~:~\mathbf{abelian} \rightarrow \mathbf{sets} \qquad A \mapsto (\mathbb{Z} A)^* $

and that the group of units $(\mathbb{Z} A)^* $ of the integral group ring $\mathbb{Z} A $ usually is a lot bigger than $N(A)=A $. So, perhaps there is another less obvious $\mathbb{Z} $-algebra $S $ doing a much better job at approximating $N $? That is, if we can formulate this more precisely…

In general, every $\mathbb{Z} $-algebra $S $ defines a gadget $\mathbf{gadget}(S) = (\mathbf{mini}(S),\mathbf{maxi}(S \otimes_{\mathbb{Z}} \mathbb{C})) $ with the obvious (that is, extension of scalars) evaluation map

$\mathbf{mini}(S)(A) = Hom_{\mathbb{Z}-alg}(S, \mathbb{Z} A) \rightarrow Hom_{\mathbb{C}-alg}(S \otimes_{\mathbb{Z}} \mathbb{C}, \mathbb{C} A) = \mathbf{maxi}(S \otimes_{\mathbb{Z}} \mathbb{C})(A) $

Right, so how might one express the fact that the integral affine scheme $X_T $ with integral algebra $T $ is the ‘best’ integral approximation of a gadget $~(\mathbf{nano}(N),\mathbf{maxi}(R)) $. Well, to begin its representing functor should at least contain the information given by $N $, that is, $\mathbf{nano}(N) $ is a sub-functor of $\mathbf{mini}(T) $ (meaning that for every finite Abelian group $A $ we have a natural inclusion $N(A) \subset Hom_{\mathbb{Z}-alg}(T, \mathbb{Z} A) $). As to the “best”-part, we must express that all other candidates factor through $T $. That is, suppose we have an integral algebra $S $ and a morphism of gadgets (as defined last time)

$f~:~(\mathbf{nano}(N),\mathbf{maxi}(R)) \rightarrow \mathbf{gadget}(S) = (\mathbf{mini}(S),\mathbf{maxi}(S \otimes_{\mathbb{Z}} \mathbb{C})) $

then there ought to be $\mathbb{Z} $-algebra morphism $T \rightarrow S $ such that the above map $f $ factors through an induced gadget-map $\mathbf{gadget}(T) \rightarrow \mathbf{gadget}(S) $.

Fine, but is this definition good enough in our trivial example? In other words, is the “obvious” integral ring $\mathbb{Z}[x,x^{-1}] $ the best integral choice for approximating the forgetful functor $N=\underline{\mathbb{G}}_m $? Well, take any finitely generated integral algebra $S $, then saying that there is a morphism of gadgets from $~(\underline{\mathbb{G}}_m,\mathbf{maxi}(\mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}]) $ to $\mathbf{gadget}(S) $ means that there is a $\mathbb{C} $-algebra map $\psi~:~S \otimes_{\mathbb{Z}} \mathbb{C} \rightarrow \mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}] $ such that for every finite Abelian group $A $ we have a commuting diagram

$\xymatrix{A \ar[rr] \ar[d]_e & & Hom_{\mathbb{Z}-alg}(S, \mathbb{Z} A) \ar[d] \\
Hom_{\mathbb{C}-alg}(\mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}],\mathbb{C} A) \ar[rr]^{- \circ \psi} & & Hom_{\mathbb{C}-alg}(S \otimes_{\mathbb{Z}} \mathbb{C}, \mathbb{C} A)} $

Here, $e $ is the natural evaluation map defined before sending a group-element $a \in A $ to the algebra map defined by $x \mapsto e_a $ and the vertical map on the right-hand side is extensions by scalars. From this data we must be able to show that the image of the algebra map

$\xymatrix{S \ar[r]^{i} & S \otimes_{\mathbb{Z}} \mathbb{C} \ar[r]^{\psi} & \mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}]} $

is contained in the integral subalgebra $\mathbb{Z}[x,x^{-1}] $. So, take any generator $z $ of $S $ then its image $\psi(z) \in \mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}] $ is a Laurent polynomial of degree say $d $ (that is, $\psi(z) = c_{-d} x^{-d} + \ldots c_{-1} x^{-1} + c_0 + c_1 x + \ldots + c_d x^d $ with all coefficients a priori in $\mathbb{C} $ and we need to talk them into $\mathbb{Z} $).

Now comes the basic trick : take a cyclic group $A=C_N $ of order $N > d $, then the above commuting diagram applied to the generator of $C_N $ (the evaluation of which is the natural projection map $\pi~:~\mathbb{C}[x.x^{-1}] \rightarrow \mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}]/(x^N-1) = \mathbb{C} C_N $) gives us the commuting diagram

$\xymatrix{S \ar[r] \ar[d] & S \otimes_{\mathbb{Z}} \mathbb{C} \ar[r]^{\psi} & \mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}] \ar[d]^{\pi} \\
\mathbb{Z} C_n = \frac{\mathbb{Z}[x,x^{-1}]}{(x^N-1)} \ar[rr]^j & & \frac{\mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}]}{(x^N-1)}} $

where the horizontal map $j $ is the natural inclusion map. Tracing $z \in S $ along the diagram we see that indeed all coefficients of $\psi(z) $ have to be integers! Applying the same argument to the other generators of $S $ (possibly for varying values of N) we see that , indeed, $\psi(S) \subset \mathbb{Z}[x,x^{-1}] $ and hence that $\mathbb{Z}[x,x^{-1}] $ is the best integral approximation for $\underline{\mathbb{G}}_m $.

That is, we have our first example of an affine variety over the field with one element $\mathbb{F}_1 $ : $~(\underline{\mathbb{G}}_m,\mathbf{maxi}(\mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}]) \rightarrow \mathbf{gadget}(\mathbb{Z}[x,x^{-1}]) $.

What makes this example work is that the infinite group $\mathbb{Z} $ (of which the complex group-algebra is the algebra $\mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}] $) has enough finite Abelian group-quotients. In other words, $\mathbb{F}_1 $ doesn’t see $\mathbb{Z} $ but rather its profinite completion $\hat{\mathbb{Z}} = \underset{\leftarrow} \mathbb{Z}/N\mathbb{Z} $… (to be continued when we’ll consider noncommutative $\mathbb{F}_1 $-schemes)

In general, an affine $\mathbb{F}_1 $-scheme is a gadget with morphism of gadgets
$~(\mathbf{nano}(N),\mathbf{maxi}(R)) \rightarrow \mathbf{gadget}(S) $ provided that the integral algebra $S $ is the best integral approximation in the sense made explicit before. This rounds up our first attempt to understand the Connes-Consani approach to define geometry over $\mathbb{F}_1 $ apart from one important omission : we have only considered functors to $\mathbf{sets} $, whereas it is crucial in the Connes-Consani paper to consider more generally functors to graded sets. In the final part of this series we’ll explain what that’s all about.

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Connes-Consani for undergraduates (2)

Published October 6, 2008 by lievenlb

Last time we have seen how an affine $\mathbb{C} $-algebra R gives us a maxi-functor (because the associated sets are typically huge)

$\mathbf{maxi}(R)~:~\mathbf{abelian} \rightarrow \mathbf{sets} \qquad A \mapsto Hom_{\mathbb{C}-alg}(R, \mathbb{C} A) $

Substantially smaller sets are produced from finitely generated $\mathbb{Z} $-algebras S (therefore called mini-functors)

$\mathbf{mini}(S)~:~\mathbf{abelian} \rightarrow \mathbf{sets} \qquad A \mapsto Hom_{\mathbb{Z}-alg}(S, \mathbb{Z} A) $

Both these functors are ‘represented’ by existing geometrical objects, for a maxi-functor by the complex affine variety $X_R = \mathbf{max}(R) $ (the set of maximal ideals of the algebra R) with complex coordinate ring R and for a mini-functor by the integral affine scheme $X_S = \mathbf{spec}(S) $ (the set of all prime ideals of the algebra S).

The ‘philosophy’ of F_un mathematics is that an object over this virtual field with one element $\mathbb{F}_1 $ records the essence of possibly complicated complex- or integral- objects in a small combinatorial thing.

For example, an n-dimensional complex vectorspace $\mathbb{C}^{n} $ has as its integral form a lattice of rank n $\mathbb{Z}^{\oplus n} $. The corresponding $\mathbb{F}_1 $-objects only records the dimension n, so it is a finite set consisting of n elements (think of them as the set of base-vectors of the vectorspace).

Similarly, all base-changes of the complex vectorspace $\mathbb{C}^n $ are given by invertible matrices with complex coefficients $GL_n(\mathbb{C}) $. Of these base-changes, the only ones leaving the integral lattice $\mathbb{Z}^{\oplus n} $ intact are the matrices having all their entries integers and their determinant equal to $\pm 1 $, that is the group $GL_n(\mathbb{Z}) $. Of these integral matrices, the only ones that shuffle the base-vectors around are the permutation matrices, that is the group $S_n $ of all possible ways to permute the n base-vectors. In fact, this example also illustrates Tits’ original motivation to introduce $\mathbb{F}_1 $ : the finite group $S_n $ is the Weyl-group of the complex Lie group $GL_n(\mathbb{C}) $.

So, we expect a geometric $\mathbb{F}_1 $-object to determine a much smaller functor from finite abelian groups to sets, and, therefore we call it a nano-functor

$\mathbf{nano}(N)~:~\mathbf{abelian} \rightarrow \mathbf{sets} \qquad A \mapsto N(A) $

but as we do not know yet what the correct geometric object might be we will only assume for the moment that it is a subfunctor of some mini-functor $\mathbf{mini}(S) $. That is, for every finite abelian group A we have an inclusion of sets $N(A) \subset Hom_{\mathbb{Z}-alg}(S,\mathbb{Z} A) $ in such a way that these inclusions are compatible with morphisms. Again, take pen and paper and you are bound to discover the correct definition of what is called a natural transformation, that is, a ‘map’ between the two functors $\mathbf{nano}(N) \rightarrow \mathbf{mini}(S) $.

Right, now to make sense of our virtual F_un geometrical object $\mathbf{nano}(N) $ we have to connect it to properly existing complex- and/or integral-geometrical objects.

Let us define a gadget to be a couple $~(\mathbf{nano}(N),\mathbf{maxi}(R)) $ consisting of a nano- and a maxi-functor together with a ‘map’ (that is, a natural transformation) between them

$e~:~\mathbf{nano}(N) \rightarrow \mathbf{maxi}(R) $

The idea of this map is that it visualizes the elements of the set $N(A) $ as $\mathbb{C} A $-points of the complex variety $X_R $ (that is, as a collection of $o(A) $ points of $X_R $, where $o(A) $ is the number of elements of $A $).

In the example we used last time (the forgetful functor) with $N(A)=A $ any group-element $a \in A $ is mapped to the algebra map $\mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}] \rightarrow \mathbb{C} A~,~x \mapsto e_a $ in $\mathbf{maxi}(\mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}]) $. On the geometry side, the points of the variety associated to $\mathbb{C} A $ are all algebra maps $\mathbb{C} A \rightarrow \mathbb{C} $, that is, the $o(A) $ characters ${ \chi_1,\ldots,\chi_{o(A)} } $. Therefore, a group-element $a \in A $ is mapped to the $\mathbb{C} A $-point of the complex variety $\mathbb{C}^* = X_{\mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}]} $ consisting of all character-values at $a $ : ${ \chi_1(a),\ldots,\chi_{o(A)}(g) } $.

In mathematics we do not merely consider objects (such as the gadgets defined just now), but also the morphisms between these objects. So, what might be a morphism between two gadgets

$~(\mathbf{nano}(N),\mathbf{maxi}(R)) \rightarrow (\mathbf{nano}(N’),\mathbf{maxi}(R’)) $

Well, naturally it should be a ‘map’ (that is, a natural transformation) between the nano-functors $\phi~:~\mathbf{nano}(N) \rightarrow \mathbf{nano}(N’) $ together with a morphism between the complex varieties $X_R \rightarrow X_{R’} $ (or equivalently, an algebra morphism $\psi~:~R’ \rightarrow R $) such that the extra gadget-structure (the evaluation maps) are preserved.

That is, for every finite Abelian group $A $ we should have a commuting diagram of maps

$\xymatrix{N(A) \ar[rr]^{\phi(A)} \ar[d]^{e_N(A)} & & N'(A) \ar[d]^{e_{N’}(A)} \\ Hom_{\mathbb{C}-alg}(R,\mathbb{C} A) \ar[rr]^{- \circ \psi} & & Hom_{\mathbb{C}-alg}(R’,\mathbb{C} A)} $

Not every gadget is a F_un variety though, for those should also have an integral form, that is, define a mini-functor. In fact, as we will see next time, an affine $\mathbb{F}_1 $-variety is a gadget determining a unique mini-functor $\mathbf{mini}(S) $.

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F_un hype resulting in new blog

Published October 3, 2008 by lievenlb

At the Max-Planck Institute in Bonn Yuri Manin gave a talk about the field of one element, $\mathbb{F}_1 $ earlier this week entitled “Algebraic and analytic geometry over the field F_1”.

Moreover, Javier Lopez-Pena and Bram Mesland will organize a weekly “F_un Study Seminar” starting next tuesday.

Over at Noncommutative Geometry there is an Update on the field with one element pointing us to a YouTube-clip featuring Alain Connes explaining his paper with Katia Consani and Matilde Marcolli entitled “Fun with F_un”. Here’s the clip

Finally, as I’ll be running a seminar here too on F_un, we’ve set up a group blog with the people from MPI (clearly, if you are interested to join us, just tell!). At the moment there are just a few of my old F_un posts and a library of F_un papers, but hopefully a lot will be added soon. So, have a look at F_un mathematics

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Connes-Consani for undergraduates (1)

Published October 3, 2008 by lievenlb

A couple of weeks ago, Alain Connes and Katia Consani arXived their paper “On the notion of geometry over $\mathbb{F}_1 $”. Their subtle definition is phrased entirely in Grothendieck‘s scheme-theoretic language of representable functors and may be somewhat hard to get through if you only had a few years of mathematics.

I’ll try to give the essence of their definition of an affine scheme over $\mathbb{F}_1 $ (and illustrate it with an example) in a couple of posts. All you need to know is what a finite Abelian group is (if you know what a cyclic group is that’ll be enough) and what a commutative algebra is. If you already know what a functor and a natural transformation is, that would be great, but we’ll deal with all that abstract nonsense when we’ll need it.

So take two finite Abelian groups A and B, then a group-morphism is just a map $f~:~A \rightarrow B $ preserving the group-data. That is, f sends the unit element of A to that of B and
f sends a product of two elements in A to the product of their images in B. For example, if $A=C_n $ is a cyclic group of order n with generator g and $B=C_m $ is a cyclic group of order m with generator h, then every groupmorphism from A to B is entirely determined by the image of g let’s say that this image is $h^i $. But, as $g^n=1 $ and the conditions on a group-morphism we must have that $h^{in} = (h^i)^n = 1 $ and therefore m must divide i.n. This gives you all possible group-morphisms from A to B.

They are plenty of finite abelian groups and many group-morphisms between any pair of them and all this stuff we put into one giant sack and label it $\mathbf{abelian} $. There is another, even bigger sack, which is even simpler to describe. It is labeled $\mathbf{sets} $ and contains all sets as well as all maps between two sets.

Right! Now what might be a map $F~:~\mathbf{abelian} \rightarrow \mathbf{sets} $ between these two sacks? Well, F should map any abelian group A to a set F(A) and any group-morphism $f~:~A \rightarrow B $ to a map between the corresponding sets $F(f)~:~F(A) \rightarrow F(B) $ and do all of this nicely. That is, F should send compositions of group-morphisms to compositions of the corresponding maps, and so on. If you take a pen and a piece of paper, you’re bound to come up with the exact definition of a functor (that’s what F is called).

You want an example? Well, lets take F to be the map sending an Abelian group A to its set of elements (also called A) and which sends a groupmorphism $A \rightarrow B $ to the same map from A to B. All F does is ‘forget’ the extra group-conditions on the sets and maps. For this reason F is called the forgetful functor. We will denote this particular functor by $\underline{\mathbb{G}}_m $, merely to show off.

Luckily, there are lots of other and more interesting examples of such functors. Our first class we will call maxi-functors and they are defined using a finitely generated $\mathbb{C} $-algebra R. That is, R can be written as the quotient of a polynomial algebra

$R = \frac{\mathbb{C}[x_1,\ldots,x_d]}{(f_1,\ldots,f_e)} $

by setting all the polynomials $f_i $ to be zero. For example, take R to be the ring of Laurant polynomials

$R = \mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}] = \frac{\mathbb{C}[x,y]}{(xy-1)} $

Other, and easier, examples of $\mathbb{C} $-algebras is the group-algebra $\mathbb{C} A $ of a finite Abelian group A. This group-algebra is a finite dimensional vectorspace with basis $e_a $, one for each element $a \in A $ with multiplication rule induced by the relations $e_a.e_b = e_{a.b} $ where on the left-hand side the multiplication . is in the group-algebra whereas on the right hand side the multiplication in the index is that of the group A. By choosing a different basis one can show that the group-algebra is really just the direct sum of copies of $\mathbb{C} $ with component-wise addition and multiplication

$\mathbb{C} A = \mathbb{C} \oplus \ldots \oplus \mathbb{C} $

with as many copies as there are elements in the group A. For example, for the cyclic group $C_n $ we have

$\mathbb{C} C_n = \frac{\mathbb{C}[x]}{(x^n-1)} = \frac{\mathbb{C}[x]}{(x-1)} \oplus \frac{\mathbb{C}[x]}{(x-\zeta)} \oplus \frac{\mathbb{C}[x]}{(x-\zeta^2)} \oplus \ldots \oplus \frac{\mathbb{C}[x]}{(x-\zeta^{n-1})} = \mathbb{C} \oplus \mathbb{C} \oplus \mathbb{C} \oplus \ldots \oplus \mathbb{C} $

The maxi-functor asociated to a $\mathbb{C} $-algebra R is the functor

$\mathbf{maxi}(R)~:~\mathbf{abelian} \rightarrow \mathbf{sets} $

which assigns to a finite Abelian group A the set of all algebra-morphism $R \rightarrow \mathbb{C} A $ from R to the group-algebra of A. But wait, you say (i hope), we also needed a functor to do something on groupmorphisms $f~:~A \rightarrow B $. Exactly, so to f we have an algebra-morphism $f’~:~\mathbb{C} A \rightarrow \mathbb{C}B $ so the functor on morphisms is defined via composition

$\mathbf{maxi}(R)(f)~:~\mathbf{maxi}(R)(A) \rightarrow \mathbf{maxi}(R)(B) \qquad \phi~:~R \rightarrow \mathbb{C} A \mapsto f’ \circ \phi~:~R \rightarrow \mathbb{C} A \rightarrow \mathbb{C} B $

So, what is the maxi-functor $\mathbf{maxi}(\mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}] $? Well, any $\mathbb{C} $-algebra morphism $\mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}] \rightarrow \mathbb{C} A $ is fully determined by the image of $x $ which must be a unit in $\mathbb{C} A = \mathbb{C} \oplus \ldots \oplus \mathbb{C} $. That is, all components of the image of $x $ must be non-zero complex numbers, that is

$\mathbf{maxi}(\mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}])(A) = \mathbb{C}^* \oplus \ldots \oplus \mathbb{C}^* $

where there are as many components as there are elements in A. Thus, the sets $\mathbf{maxi}(R)(A) $ are typically huge which is the reason for the maxi-terminology.

Next, let us turn to mini-functors. They are defined similarly but this time using finitely generated $\mathbb{Z} $-algebras such as $S=\mathbb{Z}[x,x^{-1}] $ and the integral group-rings $\mathbb{Z} A $ for finite Abelian groups A. The structure of these inegral group-rings is a lot more delicate than in the complex case. Let’s consider them for the smallest cyclic groups (the ‘isos’ below are only approximations!)

$\mathbb{Z} C_2 = \frac{\mathbb{Z}[x]}{(x^2-1)} = \frac{\mathbb{Z}[x]}{(x-1)} \oplus \frac{\mathbb{Z}[x]}{(x+1)} = \mathbb{Z} \oplus \mathbb{Z} $

$\mathbb{Z} C_3 = \frac{\mathbb{Z}[x]}{(x^3-1)} = \frac{\mathbb{Z}[x]}{(x-1)} \oplus \frac{\mathbb{Z}[x]}{(x^2+x+1)} = \mathbb{Z} \oplus \mathbb{Z}[\rho] $

$\mathbb{Z} C_4 = \frac{\mathbb{Z}[x]}{(x^4-1)} = \frac{\mathbb{Z}[x]}{(x-1)} \oplus \frac{\mathbb{Z}[x]}{(x+1)} \oplus \frac{\mathbb{Z}[x]}{(x^2+1)} = \mathbb{Z} \oplus \mathbb{Z} \oplus \mathbb{Z}[i] $

For a $\mathbb{Z} $-algebra S we can define its mini-functor to be the functor

$\mathbf{mini}(S)~:~\mathbf{abelian} \rightarrow \mathbf{sets} $

which assigns to an Abelian group A the set of all $\mathbb{Z} $-algebra morphisms $S \rightarrow \mathbb{Z} A $. For example, for the algebra $\mathbb{Z}[x,x^{-1}] $ we have that

$\mathbf{mini}(\mathbb{Z} [x,x^{-1}]~(A) = (\mathbb{Z} A)^* $

the set of all invertible elements in the integral group-algebra. To study these sets one has to study the units of cyclotomic integers. From the above decompositions it is easy to verify that for the first few cyclic groups, the corresponding sets are $\pm C_2, \pm C_3 $ and $\pm C_4 $. However, in general this set doesn’t have to be finite. It is a well-known result that the group of units of an integral group-ring of a finite Abelian group is of the form

$(\mathbb{Z} A)^* = \pm A \times \mathbb{Z}^{\oplus r} $

where $r = \frac{1}{2}(o(A) + 1 + n_2 -2c) $ where $o(A) $ is the number of elements of A, $n_2 $ is the number of elements of order 2 and c is the number of cyclic subgroups of A. So, these sets can still be infinite but at least they are a lot more manageable, explaining the mini-terminology.

Now, we would love to go one step deeper and define nano-functors by the same procedure, this time using finitely generated algebras over $\mathbb{F}_1 $, the field with one element. But as we do not really know what we might mean by this, we simply define a nano-functor to be a subfunctor of a mini-functor, that is, a nano-functor N has an associated mini-functor $\mathbf{mini}(S) $ such that for all finite Abelian groups A we have that $N(A) \subset \mathbf{mini}(S)(A) $.

For example, the forgetful functor at the beginning, which we pompously denoted $\underline{\mathbb{G}}_m $ is a nano-functor as it is a subfunctor of the mini-functor $\mathbf{mini}(\mathbb{Z}[x,x^{-1}]) $.

Now we are allmost done : an affine $\mathbb{F}_1 $-scheme in the sense of Connes and Consani is a pair consisting of a nano-functor N and a maxi-functor $\mathbf{maxi}(R) $ such that two rather strong conditions are satisfied :

there is an evaluation ‘map’ of functors $e~:~N \rightarrow \mathbf{maxi}(R) $
this pair determines uniquely a ‘minimal’ mini-functor $\mathbf{mini}(S) $ of which N is a subfunctor

of course we still have to turn this into proper definitions but that will have to await another post. For now, suffice it to say that the pair $~(\underline{\mathbb{G}}_m,\mathbf{maxi}(\mathbb{C}[x,x^{-1}])) $ is a $\mathbb{F}_1 $-scheme with corresponding uniquely determined mini-functor $\mathbf{mini}(\mathbb{Z}[x,x^{-1}]) $, called the multiplicative group scheme.

Continued here

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Looking for F_un

Published June 3, 2008 by lievenlb

There are only a handful of human activities where one goes to extraordinary lengths to keep a dream alive, in spite of overwhelming evidence : religion, theoretical physics, supporting the Belgian football team and … mathematics.

In recent years several people spend a lot of energy looking for properties of an elusive object : the field with one element $\mathbb{F}_1 $, or in French : “F-un”. The topic must have reached a level of maturity as there was a conference dedicated entirely to it : NONCOMMUTATIVE GEOMETRY AND GEOMETRY OVER THE FIELD WITH ONE ELEMENT.

In this series I’d like to find out what the fuss is all about, why people would like it to exist and what it has to do with noncommutative geometry. However, before we start two remarks :

The field $\mathbb{F}_1 $ does not exist, so don’t try to make sense of sentences such as “The ‘field with one element’ is the free algebraic monad generated by one constant (p.26), or the universal generalized ring with zero (p.33)” in the wikipedia-entry. The simplest proof is that in any (unitary) ring we have $0 \not= 1 $ so any ring must contain at least two elements. A more highbrow version : the ring of integers $\mathbb{Z} $ is the initial object in the category of unitary rings, so it cannot be an algebra over anything else.

The second remark is that several people have already written blog-posts about $\mathbb{F}_1 $. Here are a few I know of : David Corfield at the n-category cafe and at his old blog, Noah Snyder at the secret blogging seminar, Kea at the Arcadian functor, AC and K. Consani at Noncommutative geometry and John Baez wrote about it in his weekly finds.

The dream we like to keep alive is that we will prove the Riemann hypothesis one fine day by lifting Weil’s proof of it in the case of curves over finite fields to rings of integers.

Even if you don’t know a word about Weil’s method, if you think about it for a couple of minutes, there are two immediate formidable problems with this strategy.

For most people this would be evidence enough to discard the approach, but, we mathematicians have found extremely clever ways for going into denial.

The first problem is that if we want to think of $\mathbf{spec}(\mathbb{Z}) $ (or rather its completion adding the infinite place) as a curve over some field, then $\mathbb{Z} $ must be an algebra over this field. However, no such field can exist…

No problem! If there is no such field, let us invent one, and call it $\mathbb{F}_1 $. But, it is a bit hard to do geometry over an illusory field. Christophe Soule succeeded in defining varieties over $\mathbb{F}_1 $ in a talk at the 1999 Arbeitstagung and in a more recent write-up of it : Les varietes sur le corps a un element.

We will come back to this in more detail later, but for now, here’s the main idea. Consider an existent field $k $ and an algebra $k \rightarrow R $ over it. Now study the properties of the functor (extension of scalars) from $k $-schemes to $R $-schemes. Even if there is no morphism $\mathbb{F}_1 \rightarrow \mathbb{Z} $, let us assume it exists and define $\mathbb{F}_1 $-varieties by requiring that these guys should satisfy the properties found before for extension of scalars on schemes defined over a field by going to schemes over an algebra (in this case, $\mathbb{Z} $-schemes). Roughly speaking this defines $\mathbb{F}_1 $-schemes as subsets of points of suitable $\mathbb{Z} $-schemes.

But, this is just one half of the story. He adds to such an $\mathbb{F}_1 $-variety extra topological data ‘at infinity’, an idea he attributes to J.-B. Bost. This added feature is a $\mathbb{C} $-algebra $\mathcal{A}_X $, which does not necessarily have to be commutative. He only writes : “Par ignorance, nous resterons tres evasifs sur les proprietes requises sur cette $\mathbb{C} $-algebre.”

The algebra $\mathcal{A}_X $ originates from trying to bypass the second major obstacle with the Weil-Riemann-strategy. On a smooth projective curve all points look similar as is clear for example by noting that the completions of all local rings are isomorphic to the formal power series $k[[x]] $ over the basefield, in particular there is no distinction between ‘finite’ points and those lying at ‘infinity’.

The completions of the local rings of points in $\mathbf{spec}(\mathbb{Z}) $ on the other hand are completely different, for example, they have residue fields of different characteristics… Still, local class field theory asserts that their quotient fields have several common features. For example, their Brauer groups are all isomorphic to $\mathbb{Q}/\mathbb{Z} $. However, as $Br(\mathbb{R}) = \mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z} $ and $Br(\mathbb{C}) = 0 $, even then there would be a clear distinction between the finite primes and the place at infinity…

Alain Connes came up with an extremely elegant solution to bypass this problem in Noncommutative geometry and the Riemann zeta function. He proposes to replace finite dimensional central simple algebras in the definition of the Brauer group by AF (for Approximately Finite dimensional)-central simple algebras over $\mathbb{C} $. This is the origin and the importance of the Bost-Connes algebra.

We will come back to most of this in more detail later, but for the impatient, Connes has written a paper together with Caterina Consani and Matilde Marcolli Fun with $\mathbb{F}_1 $ relating the Bost-Connes algebra to the field with one element.

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New world record obscurification

Published April 7, 2008 by lievenlb

I’ve always thought of Alain Connes as the unchallengeable world-champion opaque mathematical writing, but then again, I was proven wrong.

Alain’s writings are crystal clear compared to the monstrosity the AMS released to the world : In search of the Riemann zeros – Strings, fractal membranes and noncommutative spacetimes by Michel L. Lapidus.

Here’s a generic half-page from a total of 558 pages (or rather 314, as the remainder consists of appendices, bibliography and indices…). I couldn’t find a single precise, well-defined and proven statement in the entire book.

4.2. Fractal Membranes and the Second Quantization of Fractal Strings
“The first quantization is a mystery while the second quantization is a functor” Edward Nelson (quoted in [Con6,p.515])

We briefly discuss here joint work in preparation with Ryszard Nest [LapNe1]. This work was referred to several times in Chapter 3, and, as we pointed out there, it provides mathematically rigorous construction of fractal membranes (as well as of self-similar membranes), in the spirit of noncommutative geometry and quantum field theory (as well as of string theory). It also enables us to show that the expected properties of fractal (or self-similar) membranes, derived in our semi-heuristic model presented in Sections 3.2 and 3.2. are actually satisfied by the rigorous model in [LapNe1]. In particular, there is a surprisingly good agreement between the author’s original intuition on fractal (or self-similar) membrane, conceived as an (adelic) Riemann surface with infinite genus or as an (adelic) infinite dimensional torus, and properties of the noncommutative geometric model in [LapNe1]. In future joint work, we hope to go beyond [LapNe1] and to give even more (noncommutative) geometric content to this analogy, possibly along the lines suggested in the next section (4.3).
We will merely outline some aspects of the construction, without supplying any technical details, instead referring the interested reader to the forthcoming paper [LapNe1] for a complete exposition of the construction and precise statements of results.

Can the AMS please explain to the interested person buying this book why (s)he will have to await a (possible) forthcoming paper to (hopefully) make some sense of this apparent nonsense?

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Finding Moonshine

Published March 2, 2008 by lievenlb

On friday, I did spot in my regular Antwerp-bookshop Finding Moonshine by Marcus du Sautoy and must have uttered a tiny curse because, at once, everyone near me was staring at me…

To make matters worse, I took the book from the shelf, quickly glanced through it and began shaking my head more and more, the more I convinced myself that it was a mere resampling of Symmetry and the Monster, The equation that couldn’t be solved, From Error-Correcting Codes through Sphere Packings to Simple Groups and the diary-columns du Sautoy wrote for a couple of UK-newspapers about his ‘life-as-a-mathematician’…

Still, I took the book home, made a pot of coffee and started reading the first chapter. And, sure enough, soon I had to read phrases like “The first team consisted of a ramshackle collection of mathematical mavericks. One of the most colourful was John Horton Conway, currently professor at the University of Princeton. His mathematical and personal charisma have given him almost cult status…” and “Conway, the Long John Silver of mathematics, decided that an account should be published of the lands that they had discovered on their voyage…” and so on, and so on, and so on.

The main problem I have with du Sautoy’s books is that their main topic is NOT mathematics, but rather the lives of mathematicians (colourlful described with childlike devotion) and the prestige of mathematical institutes (giving the impression that it is impossible to do mathematics of quality if one isn’t living in Princeton, Paris, Cambridge, Bonn or … Oxford). Less than a month ago, I reread his ‘Music of the Primes’ so all these phrases were still fresh in my memory, only on that occasion Alain Connes is playing Conway’s present role…

I was about to throw the book away, but first I wanted to read what other people thought about it. So, I found Timothy Gowers’ review, dated febraury 21st, in the Times Higher Education. The first paragraph below hints politely at the problems I had with Music of the Primes, but then, his conclusion was a surprise

The attitude of many professional mathematicians to the earlier book was ambivalent. Although they were pleased that du Sautoy was promoting mathematics, they were not always convinced by the way that he did it.

I myself expected to have a similar attitude to Finding Moonshine, but du Sautoy surprised me: he has pulled off that rare feat of writing in a way that can entertain and inform two different audiences – expert and non-expert – at the same time.

Okay, so maybe I should give ‘Finding Moonshine’ a further chance. After all, it is week-end and, I have nothing else to do than attending two family-parties… so I read the entire book in a couple of hours (not that difficult to do if you skip all paragraphs that have the look and feel of being copied from the books mentioned above) and, I admit, towards the end I mellowed a bit. Reading his diary notes I even felt empathy at times (if this is possible as du Sautoy makes a point of telling the world that most of us mathematicians are Aspergers). One example :

One of my graduate students has just left my office. He’s done some great work over the past three years and is starting to write up his doctorate, but he’s just confessed that he’s not sure that he wants to be a mathematician. I’m feeling quite sobered by this news. My graduate students are like my children. They are the future of the subject. Who’s going to read all the details of my papers if not my mathematical offspring? The subject feels so tribal that anyone who says they want out is almost a threat to everything the tribe stands for.
Anton has been working on a project very close to my current problem. There’s no denying that one can feel quite disillusioned by not finding a way into a problem. Last year one of my post-docs left for the City after attempting to scale this mountain with me. I’d already rescued him from being dragged off to the City once before. But after battling with our problem and seeing it become more and more complex, he felt that he wasn’t really cut out for it.

What is unsettling for me is that they both questioned the importance of what we are doing. They’ve asked that ‘What’s it all for?’ question, and think they’ve seen the Emperor without any clothes.
Anton has questioned whether the problems we are working on are really important. I’ve explained why I think these are fundamental questions about basic objects in nature, but I can see that he isn’t convinced. I feel I am having to defend my whole existence. I’ve arranged for him to join me at a conference in Israel later this month, and I hope that seeing the rest of the tribe enthused and excited about these problems will re-inspire him. It will also show him that people are interested in what he is dedicating his time to.

Du Sautoy is a softy! I’d throw such students out of the window…

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