The Langlands program, introduced by Robert Langlands, is a set of conjectures that attempt to build bridges between two different areas: Number Theory and Representation Theory (Automorphic forms). The program is also known as a generalization of a well-known theorem called Fermat’s Last Theorem. More precisely, when Andrew Wiles proved Fermat’s Last Theorem, he proved a special case of so-called Taniyama-Shimura-Weil Conjecture, which states that every elliptic curve is modular. And as a corollary, he was able to prove Fermat’s Last Theorem since Taniyama-Shimura-Weil Conjecture implies that certain elliptic curves associated with Fermat-type equations must be modular, leading to a contradiction. Note that the Langlands program is a generalization of the Taniyama-Shimura-Weil conjecture. In the first part of the colloquium, we briefly go over the following subjects:
(1) Fermat’s Last Theorem
(2) Taniyama-Shimura-Weil conuecture
And then, in the remaining of the talk, we start to explain a bit of the Langlands program
(3) Langlands program and L-functions
(4) (If time permits) Recent progress
This colloquium will be accessible to graduate students in other fields of mathematics (and undergraduate students who are interested in Number theory) at least in the first part.
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