W.M. Kantor – författare

The workshop 'Groups and Computations' took place at the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) at Rutgers University in June 1995. This and an earlier workshop (see Groups and Computation, Finkelstein and Kantor, c1993, American Mathematical Society) held in October 1991 was aimed at merging theory and practice within the broad area of computation with groups. The primary goal of the previous workshop was to foster a dialogue between researchers studying the computational complexity of group algorithms and those engaged in the development of practical software. It was expected that this would lead to a deeper understanding of the mathematical issues underlying group computation and that this understanding would lead, in turn, to faster algorithms.Comment and subsequent work indicated that this goal had been achieved beyond expectations. The second workshop was designed to reinforce the progress in these directions. The scientific program consisted of invited lectures and research announcements, as well as informal discussions and software demonstrations. The eight extended talks discussed randomization, permutation groups, matrix groups, software systems, fast Fourier transforms and their applications to signal processing and data analysis, computations with finitely presented groups, and implementation and complexity questions. As in the previous workshop, speakers ranged from established researchers to graduate students.

Five areas of concentrated research were chosen on which attention would be focused, namely: diagram geometries and chamber systems with transitive automorphism groups, geometries viewed as incidence systems, properties of finite groups of Lie type, geometries related to finite simple groups, and algebraic groups.

The workshop was set up in order to stimulate the interaction between (finite and algebraic) geometries and groups. Five areas of concentrated research were chosen on which attention would be focused, namely: diagram geometries and chamber systems with transitive automorphism groups, geometries viewed as incidence systems, properties of finite groups of Lie type, geometries related to finite simple groups, and algebraic groups. The list of talks (cf. page iii) illustrates how these subjects were represented during the workshop. The contributions to these proceedings mainly belong to the first three areas; therefore, (i) diagram geometries and chamber systems with transitive automorphism groups, (ii) geometries viewed as incidence systems, and (iii) properties of finite groups of Lie type occur as section titles. The fourth and final section of these proceedings has been named graphs and groups; besides some graph theory, this encapsules most of the work related to finite simple groups that does not (explicitly) deal with diagram geometry. A few more words about the content: (i). Diagram geometries and chamber systems with transitive automorphism groups. As a consequence of Tits'' seminal work on the subject, all finite buildings are known. But usually, in a situation where groups are to be characterized by certain data concerning subgroups, a lot less is known than the full parabolic picture corresponding to the building.