Abstract

Microlocal analysis originated in the 1950s from the use of Fourier transform techniques in the study of variable-coefficient PDEs; its intellectual roots lie in geometric optics and the WKB approximation. The field took on a coherent identity starting in the 1960s with the development of pseudodifferential and, later, Fourier integral operators as fundamental tools. Since then, microlocal analysis has seen a remarkable variety of applications across pure and applied mathematics and physics. Within the last several years, the field has witnessed both striking breakthroughs on known microlocal problems and spectacular new results in areas where microlocal analysis had not previously been viewed as a natural tool. The conference will explore applications in areas as diverse as inverse problems, general relativity, classical dynamics, and quantum chaos, and should be of interest to researchers in many areas of PDE, geometry, and mathematical physics.