BIRS Workshop — Spinorial and octonionic aspects of G2 and Spin(7) geometry

There exists a mysterious algebraic structure in 8-dimensional space that does not behave in the same way as the ordinary arithmetic that we all learn as children. Somewhat surprisingly, this strange algebra, called the octonions, shows up naturally in the study of certain higher dimensional geometric spaces, called manifolds, that are of importance in physics and in the study of the equations introduced by Einstein in general relativity. Geometers have been studying such spaces for a number of years, mostly using tools from calculus and differential equations. The proposed workshops intends to introduce these researchers to experts in the special octonion algebra, as well as in related special algebraic structures called spinors, to facilitate a cross-pollination of ideas, methods, and techniques. Some of these groups have never before been brought together in this way.