Summary

The eCHT motives seminar is an online reading seminar in Winter/Spring 2020. The target audience is postdoctoral, tenure-track, and tenured faculty, although graduate students are also welcome. The similarly structured eCHT Kan seminar was held in Fall 2019.

The goal is to understand something about the theory of motives. We will try to understand the perspective of arithmetic geometers and number theorists, approaching the issue from the direction of algebraic topology. Topics to be covered include: zeta functions, the Weil conjectures, Hodge theory, étale cohomology, L-functions, motivic cohomology, categories of motives, and
the Milnor conjectures. We will follow carefully chosen written material. We will favor deeper understanding over rushing through a larger body of material.

Participants should have a strong grasp of algebraic topology, including category theory, cohomology, and simplicial sets. They should also have a basic familiarity with the language of algebraic geometry, including some sheaf theory.

Expectations

Participants in the seminar will:

• Attend weekly online presentations.
• Give at least one presentation.
• Spend approximately one hour per week preparing for each presentation by skimming the material to be presented.
• Participate actively in an online discussion board on Overleaf, by posting comments, asking questions, or responding to other comments.

The work of the seminar will remain private among the participants. We may record presentations, but only for use by other participants. Our discussion board will not be made available to the public.

Presentations can be given with prepared beamer slides, or with hand-written notes on a tablet. See recent eCHT seminar recordings for some examples of both styles.

Organizers

The eCHT motives seminar is organized by Dan Isaksen (Wayne State University) and J.D. Quigley. Contact either organizer for more information.

Application

Please submit an application form if you are interested in participating.

Schedule

Wednesdays at 3:00-4:00pm eastern time, starting Wednesday January 8 and ending Wednesday April 22.