Modul:   MAT075  Zurich Graduate Colloquium

What is... a Dedekind sum?

Talk by Alessandro Lägeler

Date: 02.11.21  Time: 16.30 - 17.30  Room:

Dedekind Sums first arose in the 19th century as correction terms of the transformation of the logarithm of a certain modular form. However, they are finite elementary sums and appear in a wide range of subjects as geometry, topology, computer science, and mathematical physics. In this talk, we will go the other way around: We start with a selection of examples of applications without any reference to modular forms. Towards the end, we discuss their connection to the Dedekind eta-function.