Noncommutative Geometry and Arithmetic

This is an overview of recent results aimed at developing a geometry of noncommutative tori with real multiplication, with the purpose of providing a parallel, for real quadratic fields, of the classical theory of elliptic curves with complex multiplication for imaginary quadratic fields. This talk concentrates on two main aspects: the relation of Stark numbers to the geometry of noncommutative tori with real multiplication, and the shadows of modular forms on the noncommutative boundary of modular curves, that is, the moduli space of noncommutative tori. To appear in Proc. ICM 2010.Comment: 16 pages, LaTe

Poisson Manifolds, Lie Algebroids, Modular Classes: a Survey

After a brief summary of the main properties of Poisson manifolds and Lie algebroids in general, we survey recent work on the modular classes of Poisson and twisted Poisson manifolds, of Lie algebroids with a Poisson or twisted Poisson structure, and of Poisson-Nijenhuis manifolds. A review of the spinor approach to the modular class concludes the paper.Comment: Dedicated to the memory of Thomas Branson. This is a contribution to the Proceedings of the 2007 Midwest Geometry Conference in honor of Thomas P. Branson, published in SIGMA (Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications) at http://www.emis.de/journals/SIGMA

Twenty-five years of two-dimensional rational conformal field theory

In this article we try to give a condensed panoramic view of the development of two-dimensional rational conformal field theory in the last twenty-five years.Comment: A review for the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Mathematical Physics. Some references added, typos correcte

Modular Theory and Eyvind Wichmann's Contributions to modern Particle Physics Theory

Some of the consequences of Eyvind Wichmann's contributions to modular theory and the QFT phase-space structure are presented. In order to show the power of those ideas in contemporary problems, I selected the issue of algebraic holography as well as a new nonperturbative constructive approach (based on the modular structur of wedge-localized algebras and modular inclusions) and show that these ideas are recent consequences of the pathbreaking work which Wichmann together with his collaborator Bisognano initiated in the mid 70$^{ies}.Comment: A rogue address which entered chapter 2 has since been omitted. 21 pages, tcilatex, to be published in a special Festschrift volume, dedicated to Prof. E. Wichmann on the occasion of his seventieth birthda