Dear Colleagues,

    The 2012 Maxson Lectures will be given next week by Professor
Joe Harris, of Harvard University. We hope that you will be
able to come.

Time and place: Thursday, April 26 and Friday, April 27,
                        at 4 pm in Blocker 117, Texas A&M University,
                        College Station, Texas 77843-3368

Title: Interpolation Problems

Abstract: A fundamental theorem in algebra says that, given two
sets of complex numbers z_0,...,z_d and a_0,...,a_d, there exists
a unique polynomial f(z) in C[z] of degree at most d such that
f(z_i)=a_i for all i. We can extend this: given z_1,...,z_e and
integers m_1,...,m_e with sum d+1, there exists a unique
polynomial of degree at most d with arbitrary specified derivatives
up to order m_i at z_i.

This is a beautiful and highly useful result. But when we ask the
natural next question---what can we say about polynomials in
several variables---we enter a realm of mystery. The analogous
statement for polynomials in two or more variable is visibly false,
but no one knows exactly when, and by how much, it can fail. This
gives rise to a whole class of problems, collectively known as
interpolation problems.

The interpolation problem is like a number of problems in
algebraic geometry: it's completely elementary to state; a
general solution seems beyond us; and yet substantial progress
has been made and is currently being made. In these talks I'll
try to give an elementary introduction to the problem and what we
know about it. In particular, I'll try to describe a common thread
in the known and conjectured solutions of special cases, giving a
geometric characterization of when interpolation fails in general.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
This message was sent to you via the Geometry List, which announces conferences in geometry and closely related areas to over 1200 mathematicians worldwide.

At http://listserv.utk.edu/archives/geometry.html there are many functions available, including checking the archives since November 2005, changing your e-mail address or preferences, and joining/leaving the list. If you have problems that cannot be resolved at this website, send a message to [log in to unmask]

Before sending an announcement, please carefully read the following. Any announcements that are *not* about conferences (e.g. those about jobs, journals, books, etc.) will be rejected by the moderator without comment. To announce a geometry or closely related conference, send the announcement (including a conference web site if possible) to [log in to unmask] The moderator cannot edit your message; list members will receive the announcement as an e-mail from you EXACTLY as you submitted it. For example, if your submission starts with "Please post this on the geometry list" then your conference announcement will also begin with that statement. In order to keep down the volume of e-mail, only TWO announcements per conference will be approved by the moderator. The "subject" of your message should include the name of the conference and the number (first or second) of the announcement, e.g. Gauss Memorial Lectures in Geometry: Second Announcement. Please check that your announcement (especially the website) is correct. Corrections will be approved only in the most critical situations, e.g. if corrected information is not available on the website. If you send a submission from an e-mail address that is not subscribed to the geometry list then you will be sent an e-mail asking for confirmation. This feature is designed to thwart the hundreds of machine-generated spam that are sent to the list and would otherwise have to be manually blocked by the moderator.

The Geometry List is sponsored and maintained by the Mathematics Department, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.