Graduate Seminar

Location:  RI 209

Speaker: Sofia Medina Varela

MSc Student supervised by Douglas Farenick

Title: Reflexivity and Hyperreflexivity

 Abstract:

Between 1975 and 1984, William Arveson introduced what would eventually be known as hyperreflexivity and posed the question: "Is every von Neumann algebra hyperreflexive?". In 1978, Christensen proved that this question is equivalent to the derivation problem for C* algebras, and in 1996 Kirchberg showed that the latter problem is equivalent to the Kadison Similarity Problem. In recent years, Eleftherakis, Papapetros and Paulsen have introduced new ways to approach these problems.

In this talk I will introduce the concepts of reflexivity and hyperreflexivity, and discuss how these new techniques may lead to an explicit proof of the hyperreflexivity of the hyperfinite \(II_1\) factor.