From Quadratic Forms to Random Matrices

by Sébastien Antoine (UCLouvain)

Monday 2 Nov 2026, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Brussels

B/2nd floor-B.203 - Seminar room (Marc de Hemptinne (chemin du Cyclotron, 2, Louvain-la-Neuve))

A famous anecdote recounts the conversation between Hugh Montgomery and Freeman Dyson, which revealed a striking connection between the zeros of the Riemann zeta function and the eigenvalue statistics of random matrices from the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble. Less well known is the original motivation behind Montgomery’s work: an algebraic question related to the class number problem. In this talk, we will explore the links between class numbers, zeta zeros, and random matrix theory.