The Colloquium takes place every Wednesday at 11:15 AM - Warsaw Copernicus Astronomical Centre online by means of Zoom platform. The Colloquium is given in English and chaired by dr Stanisław Bajtlik (bajtlik@camk.edu.pl). People from outside of the Copernicus Center are very welcome to participate. For technical detailes please contact Dr. Stanislaw Bajtlik.
Tomasz Miller (Copernicus Center, Jagiellonian University, Cracow)
In the late 19th century, Georg Cantor made a stunning discovery: in mathematics there is not just a single infinity, but an infinite hierarchy of "transfinite numbers." In my talk, I will briefly recall how this "Cantor’s paradise" (as Hilbert called it) is constructed. I will then turn to a more recent attempt to tame infinity, initiated by John H. Conway, who went on to discover an even richer - in a sense "ultimate" - number system: the surreal numbers. This system contains not only Cantor’s transfinites but also their reciprocals, the infinitesimals. I will close by reflecting on a natural question: why study such abstract objects at all?
Journal Club takes place on Mondays at 11:15 AM in the Seminar Room. The presentation is given in English and is chaired by Journal Club Coordinators. Anyone interested in giving a Journal Club talk is encouraged to contact the email: journalclub(@camk.edu.pl).
Andrzej Zdziarski (NCAC, Warsaw)
based on https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16638
