Date/Time
Date(s) - 17/04/2026
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

This is the 2025-26 Nelson lecture held annually in honour of our former colleague Evelyn Nelson.

Speaker: Gal Binyamini (Weizmann Institute, Israel and Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton)

Location: Hamilton Hall, Room 305

Title: Unlikely intersection: a mathematical theory of coincidences

Abstract: An unlikely intersection problem is one in which the number of constraints exceeds the number of parameters. Numerous classical questions in mathematics can be cast in the form: if an unlikely intersection problem admits many solutions, then some structural feature of the problem should explain it. For example, if some of the constraints already imply the remaining ones, then an intersection may not be unlikely after all. But real coincidences should be rare, according to this paradigm.

Over the last few decades, a general approach to such questions has emerged, combining ideas from model theory, Diophantine geometry and functional transcendence. I’ll present a panorama of different unlikely intersection problems from algebra, number theory and analysis, and try to explain how viewing them all through the common lens of unlikely intersection can lead to fruitful analogies between seemingly unrelated areas.

 

Coffee will be served in Hamilton Hall, Room 216 at 3:00pm. All are welcome.