January 9th - April 9th 2013 on Tuesdays 2:30-4:00

Location: Burn 1234

Organizational meeting on Friday Jan. 11, 1pm (grad lounge).

The lectures start on Tuesday Jan. 15.

Instructors: L. Addario-Berry, D. Jakobson, M. Pichot

Open to both undergraduate students (Math470/480) and graduate students (Math720).

(To register for the course, please send an email to pichot@math.mcgill.ca. I will provide you with the course form next time we meet.)

Further readings and links:

1. -Alex Lubotzky, Discrete groups, expander graphs and invariant measures,
   

and two recent surveys available here.

1. - Some applications of modular forms
   

2. -Peter Sarnak, Notes on expanders
   

- Brendan McKay's papers: here and here.

1. -A link to Eyal Goren`s 2010 seminar on expanders (The Lubotzky--Samuels--Vishne papers are available here, see Ref. 85, 86)
   

- More on groups and geometry (including buildings): Videos from a recent workshop in Banff

Basic references:

- T. Tao Expansion in groups (Blog notes 1 to 7)

- S. Hoory, N. Linial, A. Wigderson, Expander graphs and their applications

1. -Fan Chung. Spectral graph theory
   

Description: This is a reading course that will mostly consist in blackboard talks (on which the grades will be based) by the participants. Topics will be selected from the above references (especially the first two). Graduate students will also submit a final report.

Bonus: There is a `continuous version` of this course that will run in parallel, by D. Jakobson and J. Toth (in which you are encouraged, but not required, to participate).

Our schedule: timetable.pdf