Giornata di Combinatoria per festeggiare gli 80 anni di Dan Hughes

In apertura (ore 10,30) verrà offerto ufficialmente a Dan il volume speciale di Designs, Codes and Cryptography edito da D. Ghinelli, J. Hirschfeld e D. Jungnickel per il suo 80mo compleanno.

Programma

Ore 11

James Hirschfeld: Dan's Career
Abstract: I would survey some of Dan Hughes mathematics and also speak about his influence through the conferences he organised.

Ore 12

Antonio Pasini: Polar spaces of infinite rank
Abstract: Many properties of polar spaces of finite rank fail to hold in polar spaces of infinite rank. For instance, in a polar space of infinite rank it can happen that maximal singular subspaces have different dimensions; every polar space of infinite rank contains singular subspaces that cannot be obtained as intersections of any family of maximal singular subspaces, whereas in a polar space of finite rank every singular subspace is the intersection of a finite number of maximal singular subspaces. In this lecture I will discuss peculiar properties of polar spaces of infinite rank, to test how far them can drug us from the familiar world of polar spaces of finite rank. In particular, I will consider the following open problem: is it true that, in polar space of infinite rank, we can always find at least one pair of mutually disjoint maximal singular subspaces?

Ore 15

Dieter Jungnickel: Latin Squares from Euler to Now
Abstract: This talk is meant to be entertaining: I shall review some highlights in the history of Latin squares (which actually starts before Euler), from Euler to very recent developments. Magic squares and puzzles will also show up. No previous knowledge in the area is needed.