Author Archives: Persiflage

A postview of Bellairs/Barbados

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Persiflage

I am just recovering from my trip to Barbados for the McGill sponsored conference at the Bellairs institute (which I previously discussed here). I thought it was a wonderfully enjoyable conference, for many reasons. The first is that I got … Continue reading →

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Are business schools intellectually bankrupt?

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Persiflage

From the New York Times today, a report from business school professors concerning a study which claims to show that professors are prejudiced, too. I remember reading the original paper on this study, which made it painfully clear that the … Continue reading →

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A Preview of Barbados/Bellairs

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Persiflage

This post is probably not so interesting unless you plan to travel to the Caribbean in a few weeks. The website for the conference is offline, so I thought I might update attendees on what might be happening, at least … Continue reading →

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The Decline of Western Civilization

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Persiflage

I am often inclined on Saturdays to spend a few hours at the Brothers K cafe. I bring my laptop and some scratch paper, sip away on a cortado, and listen to music on my headphones as I work; it … Continue reading →

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Are Galois deformation rings Cohen-Macaulay?

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Persiflage

Hyman Bass once wrote a paper on the ubiquity of Gorenstein rings. The first time they arose in the context of Hecke algebras, however, was Barry’s Eisenstein ideal paper, where he proves (at prime level) that the completions \(\mathbf{T}_{\mathfrak{m}}\) are … Continue reading →

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Robert Coleman

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Persiflage

I was very sad to learn that, after a long illness with multiple sclerosis, Robert Coleman has just died. Robert’s influence on mathematics is certainly obvious to all of us in the field. Most of my personal interaction with him … Continue reading →

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The Thick Diagonal

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Persiflage

Suppose that \(F\) is an imaginary quadratic field. Suppose that \(\pi\) is a cuspidal automorphic form for \(\mathrm{GL}(2)/F\) of cohomological type, and let us suppose that it contributes to the cohomology group \(H^1(\Gamma,\mathbf{C})\) for some congruence subgroup \(\Gamma\) of \(\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathcal{O}_F)\). … Continue reading →

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The congruence subgroup property for thin groups.

Posted on March 9, 2014 by Persiflage

I finally had a chance to visit Yale, which (by various orderings) is the fanciest US university at which I had never given a talk (nor even visited). The town itself struck me, at first, as a cross between Oxford … Continue reading →

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Short thoughts on my visit to Berkeley

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Persiflage

The marine biologists at Monterey Bay Aquarium give their octopuses hand massages. So do the fishmongers at Eataly. It’s quite an experience to come face to face with this antediluvian monster:  Are you allowed to turn right on red in … Continue reading →

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Local crystalline deformation rings

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Persiflage

I just returned from a very pleasant conference in Puerto Rico courtesy of the Simons Foundation (general advice: if you live in Chicago, always accept invitations to conferences in January). One thing I learnt from Toby Gee was the following … Continue reading →

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