Department of Mathematical Sciences
Freeman Dyson's Challenge for the Future - The Story of Ramanujan's Mock Theta Functions
Ken Ono
University of Wisconsin
The In his last letter to Hardy, Ramanujan defined 17 peculiar functions which are now referred to as his mock theta functions. Although these mysterious functions have been investigated by many mathematicians over the years, many of their most basic properties remained unknown.
This inspired Freeman Dyson to proclaim:
The mock theta-functions give us tantalizing hints of a grand synthesis still to be discovered. Somehow it should be possible to build them into a coherent group theoretical structure... This remains a challenge for the future.
--Freeman Dyson, 1987
After recalling the story of the enigmatic Ramanujan, we describe the solution to Dyson's "challenge for the future", and we indicatesome of the consequences of this new theory.
Monday, 17 September 2007
10:00 a.m. in University Center North Ballroom
Fall 2007 Colloquium Schedule
Mathematical Sciences | The University of Montana