Free entropy and large deviations

Free entropy is the analogue of the classical notion of entropy in free probability theory. The hope is that eventually it should lead to invariants for von Neumann algebras.

In this lecture, free entropy will be motivated from the point of view of large deviations from Wigner's semicircle law. A moderate introduction to the general idea of the theory of large deviations will also be provided. This lecture will be given by R. Speicher.