Email: glen.m.wilson (at) rutgers.edu
Office: Hill 512
Office hours: By appointment
Curriculum
Vita (Last Updated 3/2017)
Mathematical interests: Algebraic topology, homotopy theory,
differential topology, algebraic geometry,
K-theory, category theory.
Neat math stuff
•
Visual
Insight, a blog edited by John Baez.
• Interesting formulas about the Steenrod operations: \(
(\mathrm{Sq}^{12})^6 =
\mathrm{Sq}^{49}\mathrm{Sq}^{17}\mathrm{Sq}^5\mathrm{Sq}^{1} \) and \(
(\mathrm{Sq}^{12})^7 = 0. \) In the paper
The Steenrod Algebra and
its Dual (corollary 7 p. 169), John Milnor showed that for any
\(i \geq 1\) there exists a smallest integer \( n \) for which \(
(\mathrm{Sq}^i)^{n} = 0 \). The integer \(n\) is called the height of
\(\mathrm{Sq}^i\). Can you figure out a formula for how \(n\) depends on
\(i\)? Here is a
list of
the powers \( (\mathrm{Sq}^{i})^n \) expressed in terms of the
admissible basis for \(i \leq 32 \).
• Exciting update about the question above pertaining to the
Steenrod algebra. Kenneth Monks determined upper
bounds and explicit formulas for the "nilpotence" (or height) of
elements of the
Steenrod algebra in the
paper
Nilpotence in the Steenrod algebra.