Completed group algebras and skew power series rings

Dr William Woods, University of Glasgow. Part of the Algebra seminar series.

The main focus of this talk will be on the ring-theoretic properties of Iwasawa algebras - that is, appropriately completed group algebras of certain nice profinite groups. I'll give some of their basic structural properties, explain how you should think about them, and detail some strong parallels between the worlds of Iwasawa algebras and other, more classical objects. Unfortunately, many seemingly basic questions on Iwasawa algebras remain almost unanswered, such as "what are their prime ideals?". I'll talk about recent research in this direction, and (time permitting) outline some potentially fruitful approaches in the theory of skew power series rings.