The Verlinde algebra explained so that even Algebraic Combinatoricists can understand.

Tery Gannon

(York University)

Abstract: Algebraic combinatorics is interested in things like tensor product coefficients for Lie algebra representations. A "truncated" or "folded" version of these appears naturally in places like quantum groups, modular representations of Chevalley groups, or conformal field theory, and is given by the celebrated Verlinde formula. This talk is a TECHNICAL INTRODUCTION to a number of new and relatively unexplored questions, which really should belong to algebraic combinatorics. I will assume some knowledge of complex Lie algebra representations.