Logic List Mailing Archive

Workshop on the Urysohn Space, Beer Sheva, Israel (May 2006)

Workshop on the Urysohn space
May 21-24, 2006
Department of Mathematics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer 
Sheva, Israel

http://www.math.bgu.ac.il/~arkady/Workshop_2006/main_page.html

The international workshop on the Universal Urysohn Metric Space will take
place at Ben-Gurion University (Beer Sheva, Israel) from 21-24 May, 2006.
Basic information about Ben-Gurion University and Beer Sheva can be found
at URL http://www.math.bgu.ac.il/center/university.html

The Urysohn space U is the universal complete metric separable space. This
remarkable mathematical object, introduced by P. Urysohn 80 years ago, has
generated a considerable and steadily growing interest over the past two
decades. This renaissance was largely due to the research work by V.
Uspenskiy, followed by A. Vershik and later M. Gromov, which has
positioned the Urysohn metric space on the crossroads of numerous
mathematical disciplines: Functional Analysis, Probability Theory,
Dynamics, Combinatorics, Model Theory and General Topology. At the same
time, there is still no known concrete realization (model) of the Urysohn
space, and finding such a model is one of the most interesting open
problems of the theory, mentioned by such mathematicians as Frechet and
P.S. Alexandroff. The only bit of constructive knowledge about the
structure of the Urysohn space currently available is that U is
homeomorphic to the separable Hilbert space (V. Uspenskiy). An
interesting approach to the Urysohn space was proposed by A. Vershik who
regards the Urysohn space as a generic, or random, metric space. The
purpose of the workshop is to bring together leading mathematicians
working in the fields of Topological Groups, Functional Analysis,
Geometry, Representation Theory, Dynamics, Logic and Set Theory in order
to exchange ideas and present results of current research of the Urysohn
space.

At this stage, we expect to be able to cover partially the cost of local
expenses of all participants for the duration of the workshop in Beer
Sheva. Additional financial support depends on the total funds that we
shall be able to obtain.

We plan to have two principal invited speakers: Vladimir Uspenskiy (Ohio
University, USA), Anatoly Vershik (St. Petersburg branch of Steklov
Mathematical Institute, Russia)

Principal speakers will give a one-hour talk. Speakers will give a talk of
30-40 minutes during 3 working days: May 21-May 23. We expect the
participation of the following mathematicians, most of whom have already
expressed a strong interest in attending the workshop.

A Tentative List of Participants:
Greg Hjorth (University of California, USA)
Slawomir Solecki (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
Randall Holmes (Boise State University, USA)
Su Gao (University of North Texas, USA)
Vladimir Uspenskiy (Ohio University, USA)
Tadeusz Dobrowolski (Pittsburg State University, USA)
Norbert Sauer (University of Calgary, Canada)
Vladimir Pestov (University of Ottawa, Canada)
Peter Cameron (London University, England)
Stevo Todorcevic (University of Toronto, Canada and CNRS, France)
Christian Rosendal (University Paris VI, France)
Jullien Melleray (University Paris VI, France)
Alain Louveau (University Paris VI, France)
Jean Saint-Raymond (University Paris VI, France)
Lionel Nguyen Van The (University Paris VI, France)
Jordi Lopez Abad (University Paris VI, France)
Christian Delhomme (University of Reunion, France)
Maurice Pouzet (University of Lyon, France)
Anatoly Vershik (St. Petersburg branch of Steklov Mathematical Institute, Russia)
Semen Bogatyi (Moscow University, Russia)
Stefan Geschke (Freje University Berlin, Germany)
Wieslaw Kubis (Kielce University, Poland)
Eli Glasner (Tel Aviv University, Israel)
Michael Megrelishvili (Bar-Ilan University, Israel)
Edmund Ben-Ami (Ben-Gurion University, Israel)
Menachem Kojman (Ben-Gurion University, Israel)
Arkady Leiderman (Ben-Gurion University, Israel)
Michael Levin (Ben-Gurion University, Israel)
Matatyahu Rubin (Ben-Gurion University, Israel)
There could well be changes to this list. 

Scientific Committee of the workshop:
Alexander Kechris (California Institute of Technology, USA)
Vitali Milman (Tel-Aviv University, Israel)
Stevo Todorcevic (University of Toronto, Canada and CNRS, France)
 
Members of the Organizing Committee:
The Chair of the Organizing Committee
Matatyahu Rubin (Ben-Gurion University),
Vladimir Fonf (Ben-Gurion University),
Arkady Leiderman (Ben-Gurion University),
Vladimir Pestov (University of Ottawa, Canada)