The lecture course “Modular Forms in Geometry and Physics” by Prof. Dr. Katrin Wendland (Trinity College Dublin) was given at Waseda University on 12-15 and 19-20 December 2022. Professor Wendland is well known for her work on the relations between geometry and quantum field theory, in particular singularity theory and conformal field theory. She has held professorships at the Universities of Augsburg and Freiburg in Germany and is currently a professor at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland.
Modular forms are special functions on the complex upper half-plane. They are a fundamental ingredient in research related to Riemann surfaces. They are naturally connected with many areas in mathematics and physics, including the theory of lattices and quadratic forms, various problems in number theory, and conformal field theory.
Professor Katrin Wendland (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
In these lectures Professor Wendland began with a careful introduction to the theory of modular forms, She presented efficiently the details of most of the proofs in a way that was greatly appreciated by graduate students and researchers interested in learning the subject. She went on to explain how modular forms arise from field theories in physics, in particular as building blocks of characters in conformal field theory. An audience of around 20 students and researchers from Waseda and from other universities attended this very enjoyable and informative series of lectures.
Professor Katrin Wendland (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
