University of Georgia
Mathematics Department Colloquium
Gerard van der Geer
University of Amsterdam
October 28, 1999
The Theta Divisor of a Number Field
Abstract:
The topic of this talk is the analogy between number fields
and function fields. Although this analogy was discovered in the
nineteenth century, and was studied by Weil, Tate, Arakelov and many
others, it is by no means fully understood. We shall start by
explaining this analogy and then turn to the question of what is the
analogue of the geometry of the theta divisor, that plays such a
prominent role in the study of curves and Riemann surfaces. I will
sketch an approach which was developed in joint work with R. Schoof.