LMS-IMA Joint Meeting: Noether Celebration

Speakers: 

Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze (University of Agder)

Some basic biographical facts about Emmy Noether (1882-1935), in particular on the discrimination against her as a woman.
 
ABSTRACT
Although it has been repeatedly underlined that Emmy Noether had to face threefold discrimination in political, racist and sexist respects the last-mentioned discrimination of the three is probably best documented. The talk provides some basic biographical facts about Emmy Noether with an emphasis on the discrimination against her as a woman, culminating for the first time in the struggles about her teaching permit (habilitation) 1915-1919 (main source C. Tollmien). Another focus of the talk will be on the later period of her life, in particular the failed appointment in Kiel (1930), her dismissal as a Jew in 1933 and her last years in the U.S.

Katherine Brading (Duke University)

The puzzle that led to Noether’s theorems

ABSTRACT
In 1918, Noether published her paper ““Invariante Variationsprobleme” containing the two theorems for which she is so famous amongst physicists. The first theorem (often referred to simply as “Noether’s theorem”), is used to connect symmetries with conserved quantities. The second theorem is also used by physicists, especially in the context of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. But why did Noether formulate these two theorems in the first place? What problem was she trying to solve? This talk discusses the puzzle that Noether was addressing, the context for this puzzle in the work of Hilbert, Klein and Einstein, and how Noether’s theorems contribute to its resolution.

Elizabeth Mansfield (University of Kent)

Noether's Theorem, one hundred years later

ABSTRACT
In this talk I will illustrate progress, first in the understanding of the mathematical structure of
Noether's laws, and second their adaptation to various discrete versions. One main theme has been to understand the mathematical structure of the laws in terms of invariants and an equivariant frame. Another main theme has been to embed the laws, a priori, into numerical schemes, so that we can claim that the
scheme truly incorporates the physical symmetries of the underlying model. I will indicate how we may get around the famous 'no go' theorem by Ge and Marsden and achieve this last.

Norbert Schappacher (I.R.M.A. / U.F.R. de mathématique et d’informatique)

On Emmy Noether’s conceptual mathematics

ABSTRACT
Several authors have called Emmy Noether’s approach to mathematics “conceptual”, and with very good reasons. The goal of the lecture will be to analyze in some detail what this actually means, in particular in the case of her 1918 papers on differential invariants. Going through the sequence of her publications between 1916 and 1922, we will try on the one hand to spot stylistic differences, and on the other hand to understand to what extent Emmy Noether’s perspective implied a common treatment of algebraic and analytic topics. The influence of other mathematicians - esp. the direct contact with Felix Klein and the reading of Richard Dedekind - will turn out to be an important element.

Cheryl Praeger (University of Western Australia)

Emmy Noether, Symmetry, and Women in Mathematics
 
ABSTRACT
I will speak about some of Emmy Noether’s amazing contributions to algebra, which have been characterised by Nathan Jacobson as "one of the most distinctive innovations of twentieth century mathematics”. I will also comment on how Emmy Noether, as role model, has influenced Women in Mathematics world-wide.

Organisers: Elizabeth Mansfield (Kent), June Barrow-Green (OU)

Refreshments: The meeting includes lunch and will be followed by a reception.

Registration: The meeting is free to attend but participants are asked to register so that we have numbers for catering purposes by pressing "Register Now".

Society Dinner: After the reception, the LMS and IMA will host a Joint Society Dinner nearby at Pizza Express, Southampton Row.  The cost to attend the dinner, including drinks, is £30.00 per person.  If you would like to attend the dinner, please email Elizabeth Fisher.