José Manuel Gómez of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia will give a talk introducing the space of commuting matrices associated to different groups of matrices both with real and complex coefficients. His talk will consider different explicit examples, paying particular attention to the problem of computing the number of path-connected compoents in such spaces. Gómez will try to explain the geometric relevance of such spaces and the geometric significance of the number of path-connected components.

All are welcome. Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided. Sponsored by the math department.