Mathematics Graduate Student Colloquium

MGSC Website: http://math.uci.edu/~mgsc/

On Klein and Fricke's Modular Solution of the Sextic

Alexander Sutherland
Thursday, November 7, 2019
11:30 am - 11:50 am
RH 340N

Talk Abstract:

Abel's theorem (1824) that the generic polynomial of degree n is solvable in radicals if and only if n = 1,2,3,4 is well-known. However, the classical work of Bring (1786) and Klein (1884) give solutions of the generic quintic polynomialby allowing the use of elliptic modular functions. In this talk, we will re-examine Klein's solution in the modern context of resolvent degree and extend the work of Klein (1905) and Fricke (1926) to solving the generic sextic polynomial.

About the Speaker:

Alex is a 4th year Ph.D candidate working at the intersection of topology and algebraic geometry. He is also one of UCI's 2019 Pedagogical Fellows and a 2019 ARCS Foundation Scholar.

Refreshments:

Pizza will be served after the talk.