Dr. Abbey Bourdon, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Wake Forest University
Friday, Nov. 2, 2018
3-4pm
103A Walker Hall
This talk is free and open to the public
Talk Overview: Let E be an elliptic curve defined over a number field F. By a classical theorem of Mordell and Weil, the collection of points of E with coordinates in F form a finitely generated abelian group. We seek to understand the subgroup of points with finite order. In particular, given a positive integer d, we would like to know precisely which abelian groups arise as the torsion subgroup of an elliptic curve defined over a number field of degree d. After providing a brief introduction to elliptic curves and summarizing prior results, she will discuss recent progress on this problem for the special class of elliptic curves with complex multiplication (CM).
Brief Bio: Dr. Bourdon received her PhD in 2014 from Wesleyan University where she worked with Chris Rasmussen. She spent 3 years as a postdoc at the University of Georgia, and is now in her second year as an Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University.
Sponsored by the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Please contact Quinn Morris morrisqa@appstate.edu or Travis Weiland weilandtj@appstate.edu or visit our department colloquium website https://mathsci.appstate.edu/activities-outreach/department-colloquia to view more information and see other upcoming events.
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About the Department of Mathematical Sciences
The Department of Mathematical Sciences offers undergraduate degrees in actuarial science and mathematics, with concentrations in business, computation, life sciences, physical sciences, secondary teaching and statistics, plus a general, self-designed concentration. The department also offers the Master of Arts in mathematics, with concentrations in college teaching and secondary teaching. Learn more at https://mathsci.appstate.edu.
Dr. Abbey Bourdon headshot picture
Dr. Abbey Bourdon headshot picture