Office Hours: 2844 East Hall, by drop in or appointment. If there is
demand for it, I will schedule a regular time.
Webpage: http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~speyer/665_2012
Level: Graduate students who are very comfortable with abstract
linear algebra (vector spaces, tensor products, symmetric and wedge
product), who have some familiarity with groups and
representation theory, and a high level of mathematical maturity.
Towards the end of the term, I may start using the language of categories.
Student work expected: I will give problem sets every week, due
Mondays in class. I will also require students to take turns serving as
scribe for the course, meaning taking TeXed notes on what I have said
that day.
Scribing: I will require students to take turns signing up to
record, in TeXed format, what I said in lecture. The due date for
turning notes is one week after the lecture, sent to me by
e-mail. I highly encourage you
to be faster, as this will both be easier for you and more helpful for
you fellow students. You may want to bring a laptop to class and try live
TeXing (some useful tips here).
I will edit these notes before posting them.
If you are scribing and are
confused about some point from the lecture, please let me know so that
I can work with you. Of course, this also applies if you are confused
and are not scribing!
There are currently 13 students registered for a 40 lecture class, and
I will scribe the first lecture. If all of you remain for the
whole term, then you will each scribe 3 times. I expect a more likely
estimate is that you will wind up scribing 4–5 times.
Please use this LaTeX template, which provides some convenient
formatting and macros. I will add useful macros throughout
the term as I think of them.
If you have never learned how to use LaTeX, then you really need to,
as it is the standard tool of all mathematical publishing and will be
crucial to anyone pursuing a career as a mathematician. Please alert
me to your situation, and I will help you.
A useful website for getting help with LaTeX difficulties is tex.stackexchange.com.
Note that these notes will be posted publicly online, in both TeX and
PDF form, with your name attached to them, and that I may edit them to
remove errors in my lectures or your understanding of them.
You give me permission to do this, but otherwise retain copyright to
your notes.