RUTGERS ALGEBRA SEMINAR - Spring 2024
Wednesdays at 2:00-3:00 PM in H705

18 Sept Robert Boltje (UC Santa Cruz) On a question of Feit
25 Sept Igor Pak (UCLA and IAS) Spectral radii of Cayley graphs of fin. gen. groups
 2 Oct   
 9 Oct
16 Oct
23 Oct
30 Oct Marco Castronovo (Columbia) "Cluster deep loci and mirror symmetry"
 6 Nov
13 Nov
20 Nov
27 Nov   --- no seminar ---   Thanksgiving is Nov. 28
 4 Dec Jay Taylor (U. Manchester) TBA
11 Dec   

 7 Feb    no seminar
14 Feb Gabriel Navarro (U.Valencia) Recent advances in the representation theory of finite groups
21 Feb Eilidh McKemmie (RU)  Monodromy groups of covers of genus 1 Riemann surfaces
28 Feb Teddy Gonzales  (RU)  Hodge theory of matroids
 6 Mar Lev Borisov     (RU)  Phantom categories
13 Mar    no seminar      ------------------- Spring Break ----------
20 Mar Jurij Volčič (Drexel) Matrix evaluations of noncommutative rational functions and Waring problems
27 Mar Anders Buch     (RU)  Classes of Dynkin quiver orbits
 3 Apr Shira Gilat (U.Penn.) The graph of totally isotropic subspaces
10 Apr V. Retakh       (RU)  Noncommutative surfaces and their symmetries
17 Apr Zengrui Han     (RU)  Central charges in local mirror symmetry
24 Apr Dennis Hou      (RU)  Formal Colombeau theory
 1 May  Reading Day (no classes)

20 Sept Itamar Vigdorovich (Weizmann Inst) Spectral gap and character limits in arithmetic groups
27 Sept Chuck Weibel (RU)    The K-theory of polynomial-like rings
 4 Oct  Emily Riehl (Johns Hopkins) Colloquium (3:30 PM) Do we need a new foundation for higher structures?
11 Oct  Eilidh McKemmie (RU) Group theoretic problems from cryptography
18 Oct  no seminar (Tiep-60 conference at Princeton U)
25 Oct  Zeyu Shen (RU)       Computing the G-theory of two-dimensional toric varieties
 8 Nov Robert Guralnick (USC) 3/2 generation of finite groups and spread
15 Nov Tae Young Lee (RU)     Monodromy groups of hypergeometric sheaves
22 Nov --- no seminar ---   Thanksgiving is Nov. 23
29 Nov Deepam Patel (Purdue)  Motivic Properties of Generalized Alexander Modules
13 Dec Ben Steinberg (CUNY) Topological methods in monoid representation theory

 8 Feb  Abi Ali (Rutgers) "Strong integrality of inversion subgroups of Kac-Moody groups"
15 Feb Zengrui Han (RU)  "Duality of better-behaved GKZ systems"
 1 Mar Danny Krashen (U.Penn) "Perspectives on local-global principles for the Brauer group"
 8 Mar Connor Cassady (U.Penn) "Quadratic forms, local-global principles, and field invariants"
15 Mar   no seminar      ------------------- Spring Break ----------
28 Mar Yael Davidov (RU) Tuesday at 1PM, in CORE 431
     "Admissibility of Finite Groups over Semi-Global Fields in the Bad Characteristic Case"
 5 Apr Chuck Weibel (RU) "Computing shift equivalence via Algebra"
12 Apr Mihail Tarigradschi "Classifying cominuscule Schubert varieties up to isomorphism"
       and Zeyu Shen (RU) "A brief introduction to toric varieties"
19 Apr Richard Lyons (RU) "Remarks on CFSG and CGLSS"
26 Apr Ishaan Shah (RU)
 4 May    Classes end Monday May 1

Spring 2021 classes begin Tuesday January 17 and end Monday May 1; Finals are May 4-10.




Fall 2022 Seminars (Wednesdays at 2:00 AM in H705)
14 Sept Laurent Vera (RU) "Super-equivalences and odd categorification of sl2"
21 Sept Tamar Blanks (RU)  "Trace forms and the Witt invariants of finite groups"
28 Sept Lauren Heller (Berkeley) "Characterizing multigraded regularity on products of projective spaces"
12 Oct Yael Davidov (RU)  "Admissibility of Groups over Semi-Global Fields in the 'Bad Characteristic' Case"
19 Oct Mandi Schaeffer Fry (Metropolitan State U) TBA (group representation theory)
26 Oct Chuck Weibel (Rutgers) "Grothendieck-Witt groups of singular schemes"
 2 Nov Marco Zaninelli (U.Antwerp)   “The Pythagoras number of a function field in one variable”
 9 Nov Anders Buch (Rutgers)  "Pieri rules for quantum K-theory of cominuscule Grassmannians"
16 Nov Francesca Tombari (KTH Sweden) "Realisations of posets and tameness"
23 Nov --- no seminar ---   Thanksgiving is Nov. 24
30 Nov --- no seminar --- 
 7 Dec Eilidh McKemmie (Rutgers) "Galois groups of random additive polynomials"
14 Dec  --- no seminar --- 

Fall 2022 classes begin Tuesday September 6 and end Wednesday Dec. 14.

Next semester: Andrzej Zuk (Univ Paris VII)  TBA



Spring 2022 Seminars (Wednesdays at 2:00 PM in H705)
no seminar January 19 as we start in remote mode
26 Jan Weihong Xu (Rutgers) "Quantum $K$-theory of Incidence Varieties" (remote)
 2 Feb Rudradip Biswas (Manchester) "Cofibrant objects in representation theory" (remote) 
 9 Feb Chuck Weibel (RU) "An introduction to monoid schemes"
16 Feb Ian Coley  (RU)  "Hochster's description of Spec(R)"
23 Feb no   seminar           --------------------------------------------
 2 Mar Alexei Entin (Tel Aviv)  "The minimal ramification problem in inverse Galois theory" (remote)
 9 Mar Pham Tiep (RU)   "Representations and tensor product growth"
16 Mar   no seminar      ------------------- Spring Break ----------
30 Mar Tim Burness (Bristol, UK) "Fixed point ratios for primitive groups and applications"
 6 Apr Eugen Rogozinnikov (Strasbourg) "Hermitian Lie groups of tube type as symplectic groups over noncommutative algebras"
13 Apr Eilidh McKemmie (RU) "A survey of various random generation problems for finite groups"
20 Apr Yael Davidov (RU)     "Exploring the admissibility of Groups and an Application of Field Patching"
27 Apr Daniel Douglas (Yale) "Skein algebras and quantum trace maps" 
 4 May

Spring 2022 classes begin Tuesday January 18 and end Monday May 2.

 Spring break is March 12-20, 2022





Fall 2021 Seminars (Wednesdays at 11:00 AM in H525)
15 Sept Yom Kippur
29 Sept Yoav Segev   "A characterization of the quaternions using commutators"
 6 Oct Lev Borisov (RU) "Explicit equations for fake projective planes"
13 Oct Ian Coley   (RU) "Introduction to topoi"
20 OctAnders Buch (RU) POSTPONED to 12/8 ("Tevelev Degrees")
27 Oct Eilidh McKemmie (RU) "The probability of generating invariably a finite simple group"
 3 Nov Ian Coley and Chuck Weibel  "Localization, and the K-theory of monoid schemes" 
10 Nov Max Peroux (Penn) "Equivariant variations of topological Hochschild homology"
17 Nov Shira Gilat (RU)    "The infinite Brauer group"
24 Nov --- no seminar ---   Thanksgiving is Nov. 25
29 Nov (Monday) Wednesday class schedule 
 1 Dec --- no seminar ---   
 8 Dec Anders Buch (RU) "Tevelev Degrees"

Fall 2021 classes begin Tuesday September 1 and end Monday Dec. 13.



Spring 2021 Seminars (Wednesdays at 2:00 PM, on-line)
27 Jan Ian Coley (Rutgers) "Tensor Triangulated Geometry?"
 3 Feb Aline Zanardini (U.Penn) "Stability of pencils of plane curves"
10 Feb Svetlana Makarova (U.Penn) "Moduli spaces of stable sheaves over quasipolarized K3 surfaces, and Strange Duality"
17 Feb no seminar
24 Feb Patrick McFaddin (Fordham) "Separable algebras and rationality of arithmetic toric varieties"
 3 Mar Christian Klevdal (U.Utah) "Integrality of G-local systems"
10 Mar Justin Lacini   (U.Kansas) "On log del Pezzo surfaces in positive characteristic"
17 Mar  no seminar      ------------------- Spring Break ----------
24 Mar John Kopper (Penn State)  "Ample stable vector bundles on rational surfaces"
14 Apr Allechar Serrano Lopez (U.Utah) "Counting elliptic curves with prescribed torsion over imaginary quadratic fields"
21 Apr Franco Rota (Rutgers)   "Motivic semiorthogonal decompositions for abelian varieties"
28 Apr Ben Wormleighton (Washington U./St.Louis) "Geometry of mutations: mirrors and McKay"
 5 May Morgan Opie (Harvard)      "Complex rank 3 vector bundles on CP5"
12 May Avery Wilson (N. Carolina) "Compactifications of moduli of G-bundles and conformal blocks"

Spring 2021 classes begin Tuesday January 19 and end Monday May 3.



Fall 2020 Seminars (Wednesdays at 2:00 PM, on-line)
 9 Sept Lev Borisov  Rutgers "A journey from the octonionic P2 to a fake P2"
16 Sept Stefano Filipazzi (UCLA) "On the boundedness of  n-folds of Kodaira dimension n-1"
23 Sept Yifeng Huang (U.Michigan) "Betti numbers of unordered configuration spaces of a punctured torus"
30 Sept Andrea Ricolfi (SISSA, Italy) "Moduli of semiorthogonal decompositions"
 7 Oct Giacomo Mezzedimi (Hannover) "The Kodaira dimension of some moduli spaces of elliptic K3 surfaces"
14 Oct Katrina Honigs  (Oregon)  "An obstruction to weak  approximation on some Calabi-Yau threefolds"
21 Oct Alex Wertheim (UCLA)  "Degree One Milnor K-Invariants of Groups of Multiplicative Type"
28 Oct Inna Zakharevich (Cornell) 3:30PM Colloquium "The Dehn complex: scissors congruence, K-theory, and regulators"
 4 Nov Michael Wemyss (Glasgow)   "Tits cone intersections and Applications"
11 Nov Pieter Belmans (Univ. Bonn) 12:00 noon "Graph potentials as mirrors to moduli of vector bundles on curves"
18 Nov David Hemminger (UCLA) "Lannes' T-functor and Chow rings of classifying spaces"
25 Nov --- no seminar ---   Thanksgiving is Nov. 26; Friday class schedule 
 2 Dec Clover May  (UCLA) "Classifying perfect complexes of Mackey functors"
 9 Dec Be'eri Greenfeld (UCSD) "Combinatorics of words, symbolic dynamics and growth of algebras"


Fall 2020 classes begin Tuesday September 1 and end Thursday December 10


Spring 2020 Seminars (Wednesdays at 2:00 in H425)

Until March 2020, the Algebra Seminar met on Wednesdays at 
2:00-3:00PM
in the Hill Center, on Busch Campus of Rutgers University.
After Spring Break, the seminar moved on-line.
22 Jan Shira Gilat (Bar-Ilan U.) "Higher norm principles for norm varieties"
12 Feb Chuck Weibel (Rutgers) "The K'-theory of monoid sets"
19 Feb Linhui Shen (Michigan State) "Quantum geometry of moduli spaces of local system"
26 Feb Lev Borisov  Rutgers    "Six explicit pairs of fake projective planes"
 4 Mar Saurabh Gosavi (Rutgers) "Generalized Brauer dimension"
18 Mar  no seminar      ------------------- Spring Break ----------
25 Mar  CANCELLED  -- Future seminars moved on-line
 1 Apr Joaquin Moraga (Princeton) "On the Jordan property for local fundamental groups"
 8 Apr Ian Coley (Rutgers)      "Higher K-theory via generators and relations"
15 Apr Franco Rota (Rutgers)    "Moduli spaces on the Kuznetsov component of Fano threefolds of index 2"
22 Apr James Cameron (UCLA)     "Group cohomology rings via equivariant cohomology"
29 Apr Luca Schaffler (U. Mass) "Compactifications of moduli of points and lines in the projective plane"
 6 May Angela Gibney (Rutgers)    CANCELLED 

Spring 2020 classes begin Tuesday January 22 and end Monday May 4





Fall 2019 Seminars (Wednesdays at 2:00 in H525)

18 Sep Sándor Kovács (U.Washington) "Rational singularities and their cousins in arbitrary characteristics"
20 Sep Jacob Lurie (IAS) "On Makkai's Strong Conceptual Completeness Theorem"
25 Sep Saurabh Gosavi (Rutgers) "Generalized Brauer dimension and other arithmetic invariants of semi-global fields"
 2 Oct Danny Krashen (Rutgers)  "The arithmetic of semiglobal fields via combinatorial topology"
 9 Oct Ian Coley (Rutgers)      "What is a derivator?" 
16 Oct Sumit Chandra Mishra (Emory U.) "Local-global principle for norm over semi-global fields"
23 Oct Chengxi Wang (Rutgers)   "strong exceptional collections of line bundles" 
30 Oct Angela Gibney (Rutgers)  "Vertex algebras of CohFT-type"
 6 Nov Robert Laugwitz (Nottingham, UK) "dg categories and their actions"
13 Nov Volodia Retakh (Rutgers)  "Noncommutative Laurent Phenomenon: two examples"
20 Nov Carl Lian  (Columbia)     "Enumerating pencils with moving ramification on curves"
27 Nov --- no seminar ---        Thanksgiving is Nov. 28; Friday class schedule 
11 Dec Diane Mclagan (U.Warwick) "Tropical scheme theory"



Fall 2019 classes begin Tuesday September 3 and end Wednesday Dec.11.
Finals are December 14-21, 2019


Spring 2019 Seminars (Wednesdays at 2:00 in SERC 206)

Note: First 3 seminars were in H-005; 4th in H705; all others in SERC-206
23 Jan Patrick Brosnan  U.Maryland "Palindromicity and the local invariant cycle theorem"
30 Jan Khashayar Sartipi  UIUC "Paschke Categories, K-homology and the Riemann-Roch Transformation"
 6 Feb Chuck Weibel   Rutgers  "The Real graded Brauer group"
13 Feb Volodia Retakh Rutgers "An analogue of mapping class groups and noncommutative triangulated surfaces"
20 Feb Dawei Chen Boston College&IAS "Volumes and intersection theory on moduli spaces of abelian differentials"
 6 Mar no seminar  
13 Mar Jeanne Duflot Colorado State U. "A Degree Formula for Equivariant Cohomology"
20 Mar  no seminar      ------------------- Spring Break ----------
27 Mar Louis Rowen  Bar-Ilan Univ  "The algebraic theory of systems"
 3 Apr Iulia Gheorghita Boston College  "Effective divisors in the Hodge bundle"
10 Apr Gabriel Navarro  U.Valencia "Character Tables and Sylow Subgroups of Finite Groups"
17 Apr John Sheridan Stony Brook "Continuous families of divisors on symmetric powers of curves"
24 Apr Yaim Cooper  IAS  "Severi degrees via representation theory"
 1 May Dave Anderson  Ohio State  "Schubert calculus and the Satake correspondence"

Classes end Monday May 6; Finals are May 9-15, 2019



Fall 2018 Seminars (Wednesdays at 2:00 in H525)
19 Sep Nicola Tarasca  Rutgers  "Geometry and Combinatorics of moduli spaces of curves" 
26 Sep Angela Gibney  Rutgers  "Basepoint free loci on $M_{0,n}$-bar from Gromov-Witten theory of smooth homogeneous varieties"
 5 Oct(FRI) Michael Larsen Indiana U  "Irrationality of Motivic Zeta Functions"
    *** Friday at 10:00 AM in Hill 005 ***
10 Oct Yotam Hendel  Weizmann Inst. "On singularity properties of convolutions of algebraic morphisms"
17 Oct Qixiao Ma    Columbia Univ.  "Brauer class over the Picard scheme of curves"
24 Oct Sandra Di Rocco KTH-Sweden   "Generalized Polar Geometry"
31 Oct Igor Rapinchuk  Michigan State "Algebraic groups with good reduction and unramified cohomology" 
 7 Nov Isabel Vogt     MIT          "Low degree points on curves"
14 Nov Bob Guralnick   USC         "Low Degree Cohomology" 
21 Nov --- no seminar ---        Thanksgiving is Nov. 22; Friday class schedule 
28 Nov Julie Bergner  U.Virginia  "2-Segal spaces and algebraic K-theory"
 5 Dec Chengxi Wang     Rutgers    "Quantum Cohomology of Grassmannians"
12 Dec Patrick Brosnan  U.Maryland  POSTPONED

Classes end Wednesday Dec. 12; Finals begin Dec. 15, 2018
 

Here is a link to the algebra seminars in previous semesters

Abstracts of seminar talks

On a question of Feit (Robert Boltje, Sept.18, 2024)
In 1979 Feit asked the following question: Let $\chi$ be an irreducible character of a finite group $G$ and let $n$ be the conductor of $\chi$, i.e., the smallest positive integer $n$ such that all values of $\chi$ can be expressed as a rational linear combination of $n$-th roots of unity. Does this force $G$ to have an element of order $n$?
Feit's question has been answered positively for solvable groups in 1986 by Ferguson and Turull, and independently by Amit and Chillag. Little progress has been made in the following decades. This talk reports on recent advances on this question in joint work with Alexander Kleshchev, Gabriel Navarro and Pham Huu Tiep.

Spectral radii of Cayley graphs of fin. gen. groups (Igor Pak, Sept.25, 2024)
Spectral radius is a classical parameter of a graph and in the context of Cayley graphs of finitely generated groups it measures "how far" is the graph from being amenable. Unfortunately, computing the spectral radius is rather challenging and has been done in only a handful of examples. We prove that the set of all possible radii has continuum cardinality. Time permitting, I will mention what's known about other monotone parameters of Cayley graphs: asymptotic entropy, critical percolation, Cheeger constant, rate of exponential growth, and connective constant. This is joint work with Martin Kassabov.

Formal Colombeau theory (Dennis Hou, April 24, 2024)
The vector space of doubly infinite formal Laurent series does not form a ring under the usual multiplication. In the theory of vertex operator algebras, a partially defined associative product is developed in terms of formal calculus. We consider a nonstandard approach to embedding this space into a differential algebra.

Central charges in local mirror symmetry (Zengrui Han, April 17, 2024)
In the framework of local mirror symmetry, a mirror of a toric Calabi-Yau variety (B-model) is given by a family of certain Laurent polynomials (A-model). In 2004, Hosono defined the central charges on A- and B-models using period integrals and hypergeometric series, and conjectured their equality.
In this talk, I will explain a proof of (a version of) Hosono's conjecture, which is a combination of the tropical method introduced by Abouzaid-Ganatra-Iritani-Sheridan and the hypergeometric duality established by Borisov and myself.

Noncommutative surfaces and their symmetries (Vladimir Retakh, April 10, 2024)
I will discuss some noncommutative invariants associated with triangulated surfaces and their relations to noncommutative Laurent phenomenon. The talk is based on joint work with Arkady Berenstein and Min Huang.

The graph of totally isotropic subspaces (Shira Gilat, April 3, 2024)
Given a qudratic form, a totally isotopic subspace is a linear subspace where the form vanishes. The collection of such subspaces gives rise to a polar geometry. We impose a graph structure on the set of maximal totally isotropic subspaces of a quadratic form and try to reconstruct algebraic properties from the geometric properties.
Motivated by the construction of polar spaces from isotropic vectors in a quadratic space, we define hyperbolicity of polar spaces which help us detect if our quadratic form is hyperbolic.

Classes of Dynkin quiver orbits (Anders Buch, March 27, 2024)
A result of Rimanyi shows that the Chern-Schwartz-MacPherson class of any orbit in the representation space of a Dynkin quiver can be computed as a product in the cohomological Hall algebra (COHA) of elementary factors that correspond to the indecomposable representations of the quiver.
I will speak about a new proof of this result based on an algebra homomorphism from Ringel's Hall algebra to the COHA. This algebra homomorphism can also be used to prove a simple explicit formula for the elementary factors that was conjectured by Rimanyi. This is joint work with Richard Rimanyi.

Matrix evaluations of noncommutative rational functions and Waring problems (Jurij Volčič, March 20, 2024)
Noncommutative polynomials and noncommutative rational functions are elements of the free associative algebra and free skew field, respectively. One may view them as multivariate functions in matrix arguments; this perspective is nowadays propelled by advances in free probability, noncommutative function theory, free real algebraic geometry, and noncommutative optimization.
This talk concerns the images of noncommutative polynomials and noncommutative rational functions on large matrices.
Firstly, every nonconstant noncommutative rational function attains values with pairwise distinct eigenvalues on sufficiently large matrix tuples.
Secondly, one can then apply this to noncommutative variants of the Waring problem. In particular, given a nonconstant noncommutative rational function, every large enough trace-zero matrix is a difference of its values, and every large enough nonscalar determinant-one matrix is a quotient of its values.

Phantom categories (Lev Borisov, March 6, 2024)
Phantom categories are certain hard-to-construct triangulated subcategories in categories of coherent sheaves on smooth algebraic varieties. I will define them and talk about their history and recent developments.

Hodge Theory of Matroids (Teddy Gonzales, February 28, 2024)
Adiprasito, Huh, and Katz have introduced the Chow ring of a matroid, which they have used to prove the log concavity of a matroid's characteristic polynomial. Following the presentation in Huh's "Tropical Geometry of Matroids" and Eur's "Essence of Independence,"
I will briefly introduce matroids, their characteristic polynomial, and their Chow ring and discuss some geometry behind these constructions by describing the cohomology classes on the permutohedral variety that arise from matroids.

Monodromy groups of covers of genus 1 Riemann surfaces (Eilidh McKemmie, February 21, 2024)
Consider a cover of the Riemann sphere by a compact connected Riemann surface. The monodromy group of the cover is an important invariant describing how badly the cover degenerates. It is natural to ask which groups can appear in such a context. We will discuss how to genus of the surface and the Aschbacher-Scott type of the group influences the answer to this question, and provide an answer for groups of type B in genus at most 1.

Recent advances in the representation theory of finite groups (Gabriel Navarro, February 14, 2024)
Some of the most important global/local conjectures in the representation theory of finite groups have been recently proven. We will survey these results and some of the still open conjectures.

Topological methods in monoid representation theory (Ben Steinberg, December 13, 2023)
Over the past 15 years there has been a resurgence of interest in the representation theory of finite monoids motivated by applications to probability and algebraic combinatorics (e.g., the work of Brown, Diaconis, Chung, Graham, Björner, Reiner and others). The algebra of a finite monoid over the field of complex numbers is rarely semisimple. If one picks up a modern book on the representation theory of finite dimensional algebras, the first thing that is proved is that the module category is equivalent to the category of representations of a quiver with relations. But from a practical viewpoint, it is not so easy to find this quiver and relations. For example, the category of modules for the monoid of all order-preserving maps of $\{0,...,n\}$ is equivalent to the category of chain complexes of length $n$ and hence is presented by the oriented $A_{n+1}$-Dynkin quiver with relations that any composition of consecutive arrow is $0$. But the proof of this is essentially the Dold-Kan theorem, which is a nontrivial result.

An important stepping stone to computing the quiver and relations is computing $Ext^1$ and $Ext^2$ between simple modules. In this talk, we consider the problem of computing $Ext^n$ between simple modules for the complex algebra of a finite monoid and also computing the global dimension. Our main result is that Ext between simple modules inflated from the group completion of $M$ and the group of units $G$ of $M$ can be computed by looking at the homology of a certain $G$-simplicial complex as a module over the group algebra. For a large class of monoids, all Ext computations for simple modules can be reduced to this case, and even when this is not a case computing the global dimension of the monoid surprisingly often boils down to this computing Ext between such modules.

Motivic Properties of Generalized Alexander Modules (Deepam Patel, November 29, 2023)
This will be a survey of some joint work with Madhav Nori on the theory of Gamma Motives. Classical Alexander modules are examples, and we will explain the analogs of the classical monodromy theorem and period isomorphisms in this context. If time permits, we will discuss some motivation coming from Beilinson’s conjectures on special values of L-functions.

Monodromy groups of hypergeometric sheaves (Tae Young Lee, November 15, 2023)
Let G_m be the multiplicative group over an algebraically closed field of characteristic p>0. The finite groups which are quotients of the fundamental group of G_m are precisely those generated by its Sylow p-subgroups together with at most one additional element.
Katz, Rojas Leon and Tiep used certain continuous representations of the fundamental group, called
hypergeometric sheaves, to construct explicit quotient maps for many such groups. In this talk, I will talk about the hypergeometric sheaves whose geometric monodromy group is finite almost quasisimple with the nonabelian factor PSL_n(q).

3/2 generation of finite groups and spread (Bob Guralnick, November 8, 2023)
Let G be a finite group. We say G is 3/2 generated if given any nontrivial element g in G, there exists h in G with G generated by g and h. We will discuss the recent classification of such groups and the related notion of spread.
We will consider a variation of this question for almost simple groups related to a question of Lucchini about profinite groups.

Computing the G-theory of two-dimensional toric varieties (Zeyu Shen, October 25, 2023)
The G-theory of a Noetherian scheme X is the algebraic K-theory of the abelian category M(X) of coherent sheaves on X. i.e., G_n(X)=K_n(M(X)) for every non-negative integer n. We compute the G-theory of some two-dimensional toric varieties over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. I will explain how to compute the G-theory groups of a two-dimensional toric variety coming from a single cone. The computations of the G-theory groups of other two-dimensional toric varietiees will also be discussed. Using the semi-orthogonal decomposition of the bounded derived category of coherent sheaves, the G_0 of the weighted projective plane P(1,1,m) can be computed. If time permits, I will also discuss an example of computing the G-theory groups of a 3-dimensional affine simplicial toric variety.

Group theoretic problems from cryptography (Eilidh McKemmie, October 11, 2023)
We discuss three group theoretic problems that have applications to cryptography.

The K-theory of polynomial-like rings (Chuck Weibel, September 27, 2023)
We first prove that the K-theory of a polynomial ring k[x,y,...] has a previously unknown ray-like decomposition.
Then we show this when A is a polynomial-like ring, i.e., a normal subring of k[x,y,...] generated by monomials and k contains a field. The proof in characteristic 0 is different from the proof in characteristic p.

Spectral gap and character limits in arithmetic groups (Itamar Vigdorovich, September 20, 2023)
To any group G is associated the space of characters, often called the Thoma dual of G. This space is central for harmonic analysis on abstract groups. After defining this space properly, I will discuss its geometry in the case the group exhibits certain rigidity properties, most notably Kazhdan's property (T). Further restricting to a class of arithmetic groups, I will explain why any sequence of characters must converge to the Dirac character at the identity, and demonstrate this with certain examples and relations to character bounds of finite groups. Time permitting, I will discuss another result on the free group which is somewhat complimentary (and yet opposite) to the case above. The talk is based on a joint work with Levit and Slutsky.

Remarks on CFSG and CGLSS (Richard Lyons, April 19, 2023)
The talk will consist of random remarks about the classification of the finite simple groups (CFSG)
and the strategy of the long-term project (GLS, more recently CGLSS, the initials of the participants)
to write a "second-generation" proof with explicit and limited foundation in the literature.
The "G" is for Daniel Gorenstein (1923-1992, Rutgers 1969-1992), who initiated and drove the project during his lifetime.

A brief introduction to toric varieties (Zeyu Shen, April 12, 2023)
Affine toric varieties are defined using strongly convex, rational, polyhedral cones. Smooth and simplicial cones are important special classes of such cones.
Normal toric varieties are constructed from fans. The bijective correspondence between properties of fans and geometric properties of the associated toric varieties will be mentioned.
Some examples of cones, fans and the associated toric varieties will be presented.
I will also demonstrate a calculation of the Weil divisor class group of projective space using torus-invariant divisors.

Computing shift equivalence via Algebra (Chuck Weibel, April 5, 2023
Shift equivalence of matrices over ℤ is an important invariant of discrete dynamical systems.
To compute it, we translate the problem into commutative ring theory, using localization,
Picard groups, conductor ideals, and basic linear algebra over ℤ[t].

On the Admissibility of Finite Groups over Semi-Global Fields in the Bad Characteristic Case (Yael Davidov, March 28, 2023)
In the last 20 years, a method of constructing various algebraic objects over semi-global fields (one-variable function fields over complete discretely valued fields) by patching together compatible objects constructed on a network of field extensions has been introduced and developed by Harbater, Hartmann, and Krashen. For example, field patching can be used to study central simple algebras and Galois extensions over these fields. This has been a powerful tool in considering the problem of admissibility over these fields.
Given a finite group G and a field K we say that G is admissible over K if there is a division algebra central over K with a maximal subfield that is a Galois extension of K with group G. Fixing a field K, we can ask, which groups are admissible over K?
I will present a recent result which completely solves the admissibility problem for a class of semi-global fields (equicharacteristic with algebraically closed residue fields) using field patching techniques.

Quadratic forms, local-global principles, and field invariants (Connor Cassady, March 8, 2023)
Given a quadratic form (homogeneous degree two polynomial) q over a field k, some basic questions one could ask are:
* Does q have a non-trivial zero (is q isotropic)?
* Which non-zero elements of k are represented by q?
* Does q represent all non-zero elements of k (is q universal)?
Over a global field F, the Hasse-Minkowski theorem, which is one of the first examples of a local-global principle, allows us to use answers to these questions over the completions of F to form answers to these questions over F itself. In this talk, we'll explore when the local-global principle for isotropy holds over more general fields k, as well as connections between this local-global principle and universal quadratic forms over k.

Perspectives on local-global principles for the Brauer group (Danny Krashen, March 1, 2023)
The Brauer group, which describes the collection of finite dimensional division algebras whose center is a given field, is an invariant capturing interesting and important aspects of field arithmetic. Understanding when a given Brauer class is trivial, which corresponds to understanding whether or not an algebra has zero-divisors, is often a surprisingly subtle problem. In this talk, I'll describe some new local-to-global principles arising from joint with with Max Lieblich and Minseon Shin, which use algebro-geometric tools, to reduce the context of such questions to simpler fields. I'll also describe applications of this result to the problem of finding rational points on genus 1 curves over function fields of complex varieties.

Duality of better-behaved GKZ systems (Zengui Han, Feb. 15, 2023)
GKZ hypergeometric systems of PDEs were introduced by Gelfand, Kapranov and Zelevinsky. They arise naturally in the moduli theory of toric Calabi-Yau varieties and play an important role in toric mirror symmetry.
In this talk I will discuss a better-behaved version of GKZ systems introduced by Borisov-Horja and my recent work on the duality of such systems. This is joint work with Borisov.

Strong integrality of inversion subgroups of Kac-Moody groups (Abid Ali, Feb. 8, 2023)
Let g be a symmetrizable Kac-Moody algebra over ℚ. Let V be an integrable highest weight g-module and let V_ℤ be a ℤ-form of V. Let G(ℚ) be an associated minimal representation-theoretic Kac-Moody group and let G(ℤ) be its integral subgroup. Let Γ(ℤ) be the Chevalley subgroup of G, that is, the subgroup that stabilizes the lattice V_ℤ in V.
It is a difficult question to determine if G(ℤ)=Γ(ℤ). We establish this equality for inversion subgroups U_w of G where, for an element w of the Weyl group, U_w is the group generated by positive real root groups that are flipped to negative roots by w^{-1}. This result extends to other subgroups of G, particularly when G has rank 2. This is joint work with Lisa Carbone, Dongwen Liu and Scott H. Murray.

Galois groups of random additive polynomials (Eilidh McKemmie, Dec. 7, 2022)
The Galois group of an additive polynomial over a finite field is contained in a finite general linear group. We will discuss three different probability distributions on these polynomials, and estimate the probability that a random additive polynomial has a "large" Galois group. Our computations use a trick that gives us characteristic polynomials of elements of the Galois group, so we may use our knowledge of the maximal subgroups of GL(n,q). This is joint work with Lior Bary-Soroker and Alexei Entin.

Realisations of posets and tameness (Francesca Tombari, Nov.16, 2022)
Persistent homology is commonly encoded by vector space-valued functors indexed by posets. These functors are called tame, or persistence modules, and capture the life-span of homological features in a dataset. Every poset can be used to index a persistence module, however some posets are particularly well suited.
We introduce a new construction called realisation, which transforms posets into posets. Intuitively, it associates a continuous structure to a locally discrete poset by filling in empty spaces. Realisations share several properties with upper semi-lattices. They behave similarly with respect to certain notions of dimension for posets that we introduce. Moreover, as indexing posets of persistence modules, they allow for good discretisations and effective computation of homological invariants via Koszul complexes.

Pieri rules for quantum K-theory of cominuscule Grassmannians (Anders Buch, Nov.9, 2022)
The quantum K-theory ring QK(X) of a flag variety X is constructed using the K-theoretic Gromov-Witten invariants of X, defined as arithmetic genera of Gromov-Witten varieties parametrizing curves meeting fixed subvarieties in X, and can be used to compute these invariants. A Pieri formula means a formula for multiplication with a set of generators of QK(X). Such a formula makes it possible to compute efficiently in this ring.
I will speak about a Pieri formula for QK(X) when X is a cominuscule Grassmannian, that is, an ordinary Grassmannian, a maximal orthogonal Grassmannian, or a Lagrangian Grassmannian. This formula is expressed combinatorially in terms of counting diagrams of boxes labeled by positive integers, also known as tableaux. This is joint work with P.-E. Chaput, L. Mihalcea, and N. Perrin.

The Pythagoras number of a function field in one variable (Marco Zaninelli, Nov.2, 2022)
The Pythagoras number of a field K is the minimum number n such that any sum of squares in K can be written as a sum of n squares in K.
Despite its elementary definition, the computation of the Pythagoras number of a field can be a very complicated task, to the point that for many families of fields we are not even able to produce an upper bound for it. When we are, it is usually thanks to local-global principles for quadratic forms and to modern techniques from algebraic geometry.
In this seminar we will focus on the Pythagoras number of function fields in one variable, and more precisely we will show how to obtain the upper bound 5 for the Pythagoras number of a large family of such fields by exploiting a recent local-global principle due to V. Mehmeti.

Grothendieck-Witt groups of singular schemes (Chuck Weibel, Oct.26, 2022)
We establish some new structural results for the Witt and Grothendieck–Witt groups of schemes over Z[1/2], including

Admissibility of Groups over Semi-Global Fields in the “Bad Characteristic” Case (Yael Davidov, Oct.12, 2022)
We say a finite group, G, is admissible over a field, F, if there exists a division algebra with center F and a maximal subfield K such that K/F is Galois with group G. The question of which groups are admissible over a given field is generally difficult to answer but has been solved in the case that F is a transcendence degree 1 extension of a complete discretely valued field with algebraically closed residue field, so long as the characteristic of the residue field does not divide the order of the group. This result was obtained in a paper by Harbater, Hartmann and Krashen using field patching techniques in 2009.
In this talk we will be discussing progress towards generalizing this result and trying to answer the question, what happens when the characteristic of the residue field does divide the order of G? We will restrict our attention to a special case to make the discussion accessible.

Trace forms and the Witt invariants of finite groups (Tamar Blanks, Sept. 21, 2022):
A Witt invariant of an algebraic group G over a field k is a natural transformation from G-torsors to the Witt ring, that is, a rule that assigns quadratic forms to algebraic objects in a way that respects field extensions over k. An important example is the invariant sending each etale algebra to its trace form. Serre showed that the ring of Witt invariants of the symmetric group is generated by the trace form invariant and its exterior powers.
In this talk we will discuss work towards generalizing Serre's result to other Weyl groups, and more generally to other finite groups. We will also describe the connection between Witt invariants and cohomological invariants via the Milnor conjecture.

Super-equivalences and odd categorification of sl2 (Laurent Vera, Sept. 14, 2022):
In their seminal work on categorifications of quantum groups, Chuang and Rouquier showed that an action of sl2 on a category gives rise to derived equivalences. These equivalences can be used to prove Broué’s abelian defect group conjecture for symmetric groups.
In this talk, I will present a “super version” of these results. I will introduce the odd 2-category associated with sl2 and describe the properties of its 2-representation theory. I will then describe the super analogues of the Chuang-Rouquier complexes and explain how they give rise to derived equivalences on 2-representations. These derived equivalences lead to a proof of the abelian defect group conjecture for spin symmetric groups. This is joint work with Mark Ebert and Aaron Lauda.

Skein algebras and quantum trace maps (Daniel Douglas, April 27, 2022):
Skein algebras are certain noncommutative algebras associated to surfaces, appearing at the interface of low-dimensional topology, representation theory, and combinatorics. They occur as quantum deformations of character varieties with respect to their natural Poisson structure, and in particular possess fascinating connections to quantum groups. In this talk, I will discuss the problem of embedding skein algebras into quantum tori, the latter of which have a relatively simple algebraic structure. One such embedding, called the quantum trace map, has been used to shed light on the representation theory of skein algebras, and is related to Fock and Goncharov’s quantum higher Teichmüller theory.

Exploring the admissibility of Groups and an Application of Field Patching (Yael Davidov, April 20, 2022):
Similarly to the inverse Galois problem, one can ask if a group G is admissible over a given field F. This is answered in the affirmative if there exists a division algebra with F as its center that contains a maximal subfield that is a Galois extension of F, with Galois group G.
We will review admissibility results over the rationals that have been proven by Schacher and Sonn. We will also give some idea as to how one might try to construct division algebras that prove the admissibility of a particular group. Finally, we will briefly outline how Harbater, Hartmann and Krashen were able to obtain admissibility criteria for groups over a particular class of fields using field patching techniques.

Hermitian Lie groups of tube type as symplectic groups over noncommutative algebras (Eugen Rogozinnikov, Aprli 6, 2022):
We introduce the symplectic group Sp_2(A,σ) over a noncommutative algebra A with an anti-involution σ. We realize several classical Lie groups as Sp2 over various noncommutative algebras, which provides new insights into their structure theory. We construct several geometric spaces, on which the groups Sp2(A,σ) act. We introduce the space of isotropic A-lines, which generalizes the projective line. We describe the action of Sp2(A,σ) on isotropic A-lines, generalize the Kashiwara-Maslov index of triples and the cross ratio of quadruples of isotropic A-lines as invariants of this action.
When the algebra A is Hermitian or the complexification of a Hermitian algebra, we introduce the symmetric space XSp2(A,σ), and construct different models of this space. Applying this to classical Hermitian Lie groups of tube type (realized as Sp2(A,σ)) and their complexifications, we obtain different models of the symmetric space as noncommutative generalizations of models of the hyperbolic plane and of the three-dimensional hyperbolic space.

Fixed point ratios for primitive groups and applications (Tim Burness, March 30, 2022):
Let G be a finite permutation group and recall that the fixed point ratio of an element x, denoted fpr(x), is the proportion of points fixed by x. Fixed point ratios for finite primitive groups have been studied for many decades, finding a wide range of applications.
In this talk, I will present some of the main results and applications, focussing on recent joint work with Bob Guralnick where we determine the triples (G,x,r) such that G is primitive, x has prime order r and fpr(x) > 1/(r+1). The latter result allows us to prove new results on the minimal degree and minimal index of primitive groups, and we have used it in joint work with Moreto and Navarro to study the commuting probability of p-elements in finite groups.

Representations and tensor product growth (Pham Tiep, March 9, 2022):
The deep theory of approximate subgroups establishes 3-step product growth for subsets of finite simple groups G of Lie type of bounded rank. We will discuss 2-step growth results for representations of such groups G (including those of unbounded rank), where products of subsets are replaced by tensor products of representations. This is joint work with M. Larsen and A. Shalev.

The minimal ramification problem in inverse Galois theory (Alexei Entin, March 2, 2022):
For a number field K and a finite group G the Boston-Markin Conjecture predicts the minimal number of ramified places (of K) in a Galois extension L/K with Galois group G. The conjecture is wide open even for the symmetric and alternating groups S_n, A_n over the field of rational numbers Q. We formulate a function field version of this conjecture, settle it for the rational function field K=F_q(T) and G=S_n with a mild restriction on q,n and make significant progress towards the G=A_n case. We also discuss some other groups and the connection between the minimal ramification problem and the Abhyankar conjectures on the etale fundamental group of the affine line in positive characteristic.

An introduction to monoid schemes (Chuck Weibel, Feb. 9, 2022):
If A is a pointed abelian monoid, its prime ideals make sense and form a topological space, analogous to Spec of a ring; the notion of a monoid scheme is analogous to the notion of a scheme in Algebraic Geometry. The monoid ring construction k[A] gives a link to geometry. In this talk I will give an introduction to the basic ideas, including toric monoid schemes, which model toric varieties.

Cofibrant objects in representation theory (Rudradip Biswas, Feb. 2, 2022):
Cofibrant modules, as defined by Benson, play important roles in many cohomology questions of infinite discrete groups. In this talk, I will (a) talk about my new work on the relation between the class of these modules and Gorenstein projectives where I'll build on Dembegioti-Talelli's work, and (b) highlight new results from one of my older papers on the behaviour of an invariant closely related to these modules. If time permits, I'll show a possible generalization of many of these results to certain classes of topological groups.

Quantum $K$-theory of Incidence Varieties (Weihong Xu, Jan. 26, 2022):
Buch, Mihalcea, Chaput, and Perrin proved that for cominuscule flag varieties, (T-equivariant) K-theoretic (3-pointed, genus 0) Gromov-Witten invariants can be computed in the (equivariant) ordinary K-theory ring. Buch and Mihalcea have a related conjecture for all type A flag varieties.
In this talk, I will discuss work that proves this conjecture in the first non-cominuscule case--the incidence variety Fl(1,n-1;n). The proof is based on showing that Gromov-Witten varieties of stable maps to Fl(1,n-1;n) with markings sent to a Schubert variety, a Schubert divisor, and a point are rationally connected. As applications, I will also discuss positive formulas that determine the equivariant quantum K-theory ring of Fl(1,n-1;n). The talk is based on the arxiv preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.13036.

Tevelev degrees (Anders Buch, December 8, 2021):
Let X be a non-singular complex projective variety. The virtual Tevelev degree of X associated to (g,d,n) is the (virtual) degree of the forgetful map from theKontsevich moduli space M_g,n(X,d) of n-pointed stable maps to X of genus g and degree d, to the product M_g,n × Xⁿ. Recent work of Lian and Pandharipande shows that this invariant is enumerative in many cases, that is, it is the number of degree-d maps from a fixed genus-g curve to X, that send n fixed points in the curve to n fixed points in X.
I will speak about a simple formula for this degree in terms of the (small) quantum cohomology ring of X. If X is a Grassmann variety (or more generally, a cominuscule flag variety) then the virtual Tevelev degrees of X can be expressed in terms of the (real) eigenvalues of a symmetric endomorphism of the quantum cohomology ring. If X is a complete intersection of low degree compared to its dimension, then the virtual Tevelev degrees of X are given by an explicit product formula. I will do my best to keep this talk student-friendly, so the most of it will be about explaining the ingredients of this abstract. The results are joint work with Rahul Pandharipande.

Equivariant variations of topological Hochschild homology (Maximilien Peroux, November 10, 2021):
Topological Hochschild homology (THH) is an important variant for rings and ring spectra. It is built as a geometric realization of a cyclic bar construction. It is endowed with an action of the circle, because it is a geometric realization of a cyclic object. The simplex category factors through Connes' category Λ. Similarly, real topological Hochschild homology (THR) for rings (and ring spectra) with anti-involution is endowed with a O(2)-action. Here instead of the cyclic category Λ, we use the dihedral category Ξ.
From work in progress with Gabe Angelini-Knoll and Mona Merling, I present a generalization of Λ and Ξ called crossed simplicial groups, introduced by Fiedorwicz and Loday. To each crossed simplical group G, I define THG, an equivariant analogue of THH. Its input is a ring spectrum with a twisted group action. THG is an algebraic invariant endowed with different action and cyclotomic structure, and generalizes THH and THR.

Localization, and the K-theory of monoid schemes (Ian Coley and Chuck Weibel, November 3, 2021):
We develop the K-theory of sets with an action of a pointed monoid (or monoid scheme), analogous to the $K$-theory of modules over a ring (or scheme).
In order to form localization sequences, we construct the quotient category of a nice regular category by a Serre subcategory. A special case is the localization of an abelian category by a Serre subcategory.

The probability of generating invariably a finite simple group (Eilidh McKemmie, October 27, 2021):
We say a group is invariably generated by a subset if every tuple in the product of conjugacy classes of elements in that subset is a generating tuple. We discuss the history of computational Galois theory and probabilistic generation problems to motivate some results about the probability of generating invariably a finite simple group, joint work with Daniele Garzoni. We also highlight some methods for studying probabilistic invariable generation.

Introduction to topoi (Ian Coley, October 13, 2021):
The theory of sheaves on a topological space or scheme admits a generalization to sheaves on a category equipped with a topology, which we call a site. This level of generality allows us access to interesting cohomology theories on schemes that don't make sense at the point-set level. We'll give the basic definitions, warm up by categorifying the notion of sheaves on a topological space, then get into these new topologies and their associated sheaf cohomologies.

Explicit equations for fake projective planes (Lev Borisov, October 6, 2021):
There are 50 complex conjugate pairs of fake projective planes, realized as quotients of the complex 2-ball. However, in most cases there are no known explicit embeddings into a projective space. In this talk I will describe my work over the past several years (with multiple co-authors) which resulted in explicit equations for 9 out of the 50 pairs. It is a wild ride in the field of computer assisted AG computations.

A characterization of the quaternions using commutators (Yoav Segev, September 29, 2021):
Let D be a quaternion division algebra over a field F. Thus D=F +F i +F j+ F k, with i^2, j^2 in F and k=ij=-ji. A pure quaternion is an element p in D such that p is in F i+F j+F k.
It is easy to check that p^2 is in F, for a pure quaternion p, and that given x,y in D, the commutator (x,y)=xy-yx is a pure quaternion.
We show that this characterizes quaternion division algebras, namely, any associative ring R with 1, such that the commutator (x,y) is not a zero divisor and satisfies (x,y)^2 is in the center of R, for all nonzero x,y in R, is a quaternion division algebra. The proof is elementary and self contained.
This is joint work with Erwin Kleinfeld

Compactifications of moduli of G-bundles and conformal blocks (Avery Wilson, May 12, 2021):
I will talk about Schmitt and Munoz-Castaneda's compactification of the moduli space of G-bundles on a curve and its relation to conformal blocks. I use this compactification to prove finite generation of the conformal blocks algebra over the stack of stable curves of genus >1, which Belkale-Gibney had previously proven for G=SL(r). This yields a nice compactification for the relative moduli space of G-bundles.

Complex rank 3 vector bundles on CP⁵ (Morgan Opie, May 5,2021:
Given the ubiquity of vector bundles, it is perhaps surprising that there are so many open questions about them -- even on projective spaces. In this talk, I will outline my ongoing work on complex rank 3 topological vector bundles on CP⁵. I will describe a classification of such bundles, involving a connection to topological modular forms. I will also discuss a topological, rank-preserving additive structure which allows for the construction of new rank 3 bundles on CP^5 from "simple" ones. This construction is an analogue to an algebraic construction of Horrocks. As time allows, I will discuss future algebro-geometric directions related to this project.

Geometry of mutations: mirrors and McKay (Ben Wormleighton, April 28, 2021):
There are several notions of mutation that arise in different parts of algebra, geometry, and combinatorics. I will discuss some of these appearances in mirror symmetry and in the McKay correspondence with a view towards approaching classification problems for Fano varieties and for crepant resolutions of orbifold singularities.

Motivic semiorthogonal decompositions for abelian varieties (Fanco Rota, April 21, 2021):
A motivic semiorthogonal decomposition is the decomposition of the derived category of a quotient stack [X/G] into components related to the "fixed-point data". They represent a categorical analog of the Atiyah-Bott localization formula in equivariant cohomology, and their existence is conjectured for finite G (and an additional smoothess assumption) by Polishchuk and Van den Bergh.
I will present joint work with Bronson Lim, in which we construct a motivic semiorthogonal decomposition for a wide class of smooth quotients of abelian varieties by finite groups, using the recent classification by Auffarth, Lucchini Arteche, and Quezada.

Counting elliptic curves with prescribed torsion over imaginary quadratic fields (Allechar Serrano Lopez, April 14, 2021):
A generalization of Mazur's theorem states that there are 26 possibilities for the torsion subgroup of an elliptic curve over a quadratic extension of Q. If G is one of these groups, we count the number of elliptic curves of bounded naive height whose torsion subgroup is isomorphic to G in the case of imaginary quadratic fields.

Ample stable vector bundles on rational surfaces (John Kopper, March 24, 2021):
Ample vector bundles are among the most important "positive" vector bundles in algebraic geometry, but have resisted attempts at classification, especially in dimensions two and higher. In this talk, I will discuss a moduli-theoretic approach to this problem that dates to Le Potier and is particularly powerful on rational surfaces: study Chern characters for which the general stable bundle is ample.
After reviewing the ideas of stability and ampleness for vector bundles, I will discuss some new results in this direction for minimal rational surfaces. First, I will give a complete classification of Chern characters on these surfaces for which the general stable bundle is both ample and globally generated. Second, I will explain how this classification also holds in an asymptotic sense without the assumption of global generation. This is joint work with Jack Huizenga.

On log del Pezzo surfaces in positive characteristic (Justin Lacini, March 10, 2021):
A log del Pezzo surface is a normal surface with only Kawamata log terminal singularities and anti-ample canonical class. Over the complex numbers, Keel and McKernan have classified all but a bounded family of log del Pezzo surfaces of Picard number one.
In this talk we will extend their classification to positive characteristic. In particular, we will prove that for p>3 every log del Pezzo surface of Picard number one admits a log resolution that lifts to characteristic zero over a smooth base. As a consequence, we will see that Kawamata-Viehweg vanishing holds in this setting. Finally, we will conclude with some counterexamples in characteristic two, three and five.

Integrality of G-local systems (Christian Klevdal, March 3,2021):
Simpson conjectured that for a reductive group G, rigid G-local systems on a smooth projective complex variety are integral. I will discuss a proof of integrality for cohomologically rigid G-local systems. This generalizes and is inspired by work of Esnault and Groechenig for GL_n. Surprisingly, the main tools used in the proof (for general G and GL_n) are the work of L. Lafforgue on the Langlands program for curves over function fields, and work of Drinfeld on companions of \ell-adic sheaves. The major differences between general G and GL_n are first to make sense of companions for G-local systems, and second to show that the monodromy group of a rigid G-local system is semisimple.
All work is joint with Stefan Patrikis.

Separable algebras and rationality of arithmetic toric varieties (Patrick McFaddin, February 24, 2021):
The class of toric varieties defined over the complex numbers gives a robust testing ground for computing various invariants, e.g., algebraic K-theory and derived categories. To obtain a broader sense of the capabilities of these invariants, we look to the arithmetic setting and twisted forms of toric varieties. In this talk, I will discuss work on distinguishing forms of toric varieties using separable algebras and how this sheds light on the connection between derived categories and rationality questions. This is joint work with M. Ballard, A. Duncan, and A. Lamarche.

Moduli spaces of stable sheaves over quasipolarized K3 surfaces, and Strange Duality (Svetlana Makarova, February 10, 2021):
I will talk about a construction of relative moduli spaces of stable sheaves over the stack of quasipolarized surfaces. For this, I first retrace some of the classical results in the theory of moduli spaces of sheaves on surfaces to make them work over the nonample locus. Then I will recall the theory of good moduli spaces, whose study was initiated by Alper and concerns an intrinsic (stacky) reformulation of the notion of good quotients from GIT. Finally, I use a criterion by Alper-Heinloth-Halpern-Leistner, coupled with some categorical arguments, to prove existence of the good moduli space.

Stability of pencils of plane curves (Aline Zanardini, February 3, 2021):
I will discuss some recent results on the problem of classifying pencils of plane curves via geometric invariant theory. We will see how the stability of a pencil is related to the stability of its generators, to the log canonical threshold of its members, and to the multiplicities of its base points.

What is Tensor Triangulated Geometry? (Ian Coley, January 27, 2021):
Based on work of Thomason, Balmer defined a way to think about varieties from a purely category-theoretic point of view. By considering not only the triangulated structure of the derived category but also the tensor product, one can (nearly) do geometry within the category D^b(X) itself. I will discuss the construction of the 'Balmer spectrum' and give some pertinent examples.

Combinatorics of words, symbolic dynamics and growth of algebras (Be'eri Greenfeld, December 9, 2020):
The most important invariant of a finite dimensional algebra is its dimension. Let A be a finitely generated, infinite dimensional associative or Lie algebra over some base field F. A useful way to 'measure its infinitude' is to study its growth rate, namely, the asymptotic behavior of the dimensions of the spaces spanned by (at most n)-fold products of some fixed generators. Up to a natural asymptotic equivalence relation, this function becomes a well-defined invariant of the algebra itself, independent of the specification of generators.

The question of 'how do algebras grow?', or, which functions can be realized as growth rates of algebras (perhaps with additional algebraic properties, as grading, simplicity etc.) plays an important role in classifying infinite dimensional algebras of certain classes, and is thus connected to ring theory, noncommutative projective geometry, quantum algebra, arithmetic geometry, combinatorics of infinite words, symbolic dynamics and more.

We present new results on possible and impossible growth rates of important classes of associative and Lie algebras, thereby settling several open questions in this area. Among the tools we apply are novel techniques and recent constructions arising from noncommutative algebra, combinatorics of (infinite trees of) infinite words and convolution algebras of étale groupoids attached to them.

Classifying perfect complexes of Mackey functors (Clover May, December 2, 2020):
Mackey functors were introduced by Dress and Green to encode operations that behave like restriction and induction in representation theory. They play a central role in equivariant homotopy theory, where homotopy groups are replaced by homotopy Mackey functors. In this talk I will discuss joint work with Dan Dugger and Christy Hazel classifying perfect chain complexes of Mackey functors for G=Z/2. Our classification leads to a computation of the Balmer spectrum of the derived category. It has topological consequences as well, classifying all modules over the equivariant Eilenberg--MacLane spectrum HZ/2.

Lannes' T-functor and Chow rings of classifying spaces (David Hemminger, November 18, 2020):
Equivariant Chow rings, including Chow rings of classifying spaces of algebraic groups, appear often in nature but are difficult to compute. Like singular cohomology in topology, these Chow rings modulo a prime p carry the additional structure of unstable modules over the Steenrod algebra. We utilize this extra structure to refine estimates of equivariant Chow rings mod p. As a special case, we prove an analog of Quillen's stratification theorem, generalizing and recovering prior results of Yagita and Totaro.

Graph potentials as mirrors to moduli of vector bundles on curves (Pieter Belmans, November 11, 2020):
In a joint work with Sergey Galkin and Swarnava Mukhopadhyay we have introduced a class of Laurent polynomials associated to decorated trivalent graphs which we called graph potentials. These Laurent polynomials satisfy interesting symmetry and compatibility properties. Under mirror symmetry they are related to moduli spaces of rank 2 bundles (with fixed determinant of odd degree) on a curve of genus $g\geq 2$, which is a class of Fano varieties of dimension $3g-3$.
I will discuss (parts of) the (enumerative / homological) mirror symmetry picture for Fano varieties, and then explain what we understand for this class of varieties and what we can say about the (conjectural) semiorthogonal decomposition of the derived category.

Tits cone intersections and Applications (Michael Wemyss, November 4, 2020):
In the first half of the talk, I will give an overview of Tits cone intersections, which are structures that can be obtained from (possibly affine) ADE Dynkin diagrams, together with a choice of nodes. This is quite elementary, but visually very beautiful, and it has some really remarkable features and applications.
In the second half of the talk I will highlight some of the applications to algebraic geometry, mainly to 3-fold flopping contractions, through mutation and stability conditions. This should be viewed as a categorification of the first half of my talk. Parts are joint work with Yuki Hirano, parts with Osamu Iyama.

The Dehn complex: scissors congruence, K-theory, and regulators (Inn Zakharevich, October 28, 2020):
Hilbert's third problem asks: do there exist two polyhedra with the same volume which are not scissors congruent? In other words, if P and Qare polyhedra with the same volume, is it always possible to write P as the union of P_i, and Q as the union of Q_i, such that the P's and Q's intersect only on the boundaries and such that P_i is congruent to Q_i?

In 1901 Dehn answered this question in the negative by constructing a second scissors congruence invariant now called the "Dehn invariant," and showing that a cube and a regular tetrahedron never have equal Dehn invariants, regardless of their volumes. We can then restate Hilbert's third problem: do the volume and Dehn invariant separate the scissors congruence classes? In 1965 Sydler showed that the answer is yes; in 1968 Jessen showed that this result extends to dimension 4, and in 1982 Dupont and Sah constructed analogs of such results in spherical and hyperbolic geometries. However, the problem remains open past dimension 4. By iterating Dehn invariants Goncharov constructed a chain complex, and conjectured that the homology of this chain complex is related to certain graded portions of the algebraic K-theory of the complex numbers, with the volume appearing as a regulator.

In joint work with Jonathan Campbell, we have constructed a new analysis of this chain complex which illuminates the connection between the Dehn complex and algebraic K-theory, and which opens new routes for extending Dehn's results to higher dimensions. In this talk we will discuss this construction and its connections to both algebraic and Hermitian K-theory, and discuss the new avenues of attack that this presents for the generalized Hilbert's third problem.

Degree One Milnor K-Invariants of Groups of Multiplicative Type (Alex Wertheim, October 21, 2020):
Many important algebraic objects can be viewed as G-torsors over a field F, where G is an algebraic group over F. For example, there is a natural bijection between F-isomorphism classes of central simple F-algebras of degree n and PGL_n(F)-torsors over Spec(F). Much as one may study principal bundles on a manifold via characteristic classes, one may likewise study G-torsors over a field via certain associated Galois cohomology classes. This principle is made precise by the notion of a cohomological invariant, which was first introduced by Serre.

In this talk, we will determine the cohomological invariants for algebraic groups of multiplicative type with values in H^1(-, Q/Z(1). Our main technical analysis will center around a careful examination of mu_n-torsors over a smooth, connected, reductive algebraic group. Along the way, we will compute a related group of invariants for smooth, connected, reductive groups

An obstruction to weak approximation on some Calabi-Yau threefolds (Katrina Honigs, October 14, 2020):
The study of Q-rational points on algebraic varieties is fundamental to arithmetic geometry. One of the few methods available to show that a variety does not have any Q-points is to give a Brauer-Manin obstruction. Hosono and Takagi have constructed a class of Calabi-Yau threefolds that occur as a linear section of a double quintic symmetroid and given a detailed analysis of them as complex varieties in the context of mirror symmetry. This construction can be used to produce varieties over Q as well, and these threefolds come tantalizingly equipped with a natural Brauer class. In work with Hashimoto, Lamarche and Vogt, we analyze these threefolds and their Brauer class over Q and give a condition under which the Brauer class obstructs weak approximation, though it cannot obstruct the existence of Q-rational points.

The Kodaira dimension of some moduli spaces of elliptic K3 surfaces (Giacomo Mezzedimi, October 7, 2020):
Let $\mathcal{M}_{2k}$ denote the moduli space of $U\oplus \langle -2k\rangle$-polarized K3 surfaces. Geometrically, the K3 surfaces in $\mathcal{M}_{2k}$ are elliptic and contain an extra curve class, depending on $k\ge 1$. I will report on a joint work with M. Fortuna and M. Hoff, in which we compute the Kodaira dimension of $\mathcal{M}_{2k}$ for almost all $k$: more precisely, we show that it is of general type if $k\ge 220$ and unirational if $k\le 50$, $k\not\in \{11,35,42,48\}$. After introducing the general problem, I will compare the strategies used to obtain both results. If time permits, I will show some examples arising from explicit geometric constructions.

Moduli of semiorthogonal decompositions (Andrea Ricolfi, September 30, 2020):
We discuss the existence of a moduli space parametrising semiorthogonal decompositions on the fibres of a smooth projective morphism X/U. More precisely, we define a functor on (Sch/U) sending V/U to the set of semiorthogonal decompositions on Perf(X_V). We show this functor defines an etale algebraic space over U. As an application, we prove that if the generic fibre of X/U is indecomposable, then so are all fibres. We discuss some examples and applications. Joint work with Pieter Belmans and Shinnosuke Okawa.

Betti numbers of unordered configuration spaces of a punctured torus (Yifeng Huang, September 23, 2020):
Let X be a elliptic curve over C with one point removed, and consider the unordered configuration spaces Conf^n(X)={(x_1,...,x_n): x_i\ne x_j for i\ne j} / S_n. We present a rational function in two variables from whose coefficients we can read off the i-th Betti numbers of Conf^n(X) for all i and n. The key of the proof is a property called "purity", which was known to Kim for (ordered or unordered) configuration spaces of the complex plane with r >= 0 points removed. We show that the unordered configuration spaces of X also have purity (but with different weights). This is a joint work with G. Cheong.

On the boundedness of n-folds of Kodaira dimension n-1 (Stefano Filipazzi, September 16, 2020):
One of the main topics in the classification of algebraic varieties is boundedness. Loosely speaking, a set of varieties is called bounded if it can be parametrized by a scheme of finite type. In the literature, there is extensive work regarding the boundedness of varieties belonging to the three building blocks of the birational classificaiton of varieties: varieties of Fano type, Calabi--Yau type, and general type. Recently, work of Di Cerbo--Svaldi and Birkar introduced ideas to deduce boundedness statements for fibrations from boundedness results concerning these three classes of varieties. Following this philosophy, in this talk I will discuss some natural conditions for a set of n-folds of Kodaira dimension n-1 to be bounded.

Part of this talk is based on joint work with Roberto Svaldi.

A journey from the octonionic P² to a fake P² (Lev Borisov, September 9, 2020):
This is joint work with Anders Buch and Enrico Fatighenti. We discover a family of surfaces of general type with K²=3 and p=q=0 as free C₁₃ quotients of special linear cuts of the octonionic projective plane OP². A special member of the family has 3 singularities of type A₂, and is a quotient of a fake projective plane, which we construct explicitly.

Compactifications of moduli of points and lines in the projective plane (Luca Schaffler, April 29, 2020):
Projective duality identifies the moduli space B_n parametrizing configurations of n general points in projective plane with X(3,n), parametrizing configurations of n general lines in the dual plane. When considering degenerations of such objects, it is interesting to compare different compactifications of the above moduli spaces.
In this work, we consider Gerritzen-Piwek's compactification B_n and Kapranov's Chow quotient compactification X(3,n), and we show they have isomorphic normalizations.
We prove that B_n does not admit a modular interpretation claimed by Gerritzen and Piwek, namely a family of n-pointed central fibers of Mustafin joins associated to one-parameter degenerations of n points in the plane. We construct the correct compactification of B_n which admits such a family, and we describe it for n=5,6. This is joint work in progress with Jenia Tevelev.

Group cohomology rings via equivariant cohomology (James Cameron, April 22, 2020):
The cohomology rings of finite groups are typically very complicated, but their geometric properties are often tractable and retain representation theoretic information. These geometric properties become more clear once one considers group cohomology rings in the context of equivariant cohomology. In this talk I will discuss how to use techniques involving flag varieties dating back to Quillen and a filtration of equivariant cohomology rings due to Duflot to study the associated primes and local cohomology modules of group cohomology rings.
This talk will be online, using webex

Moduli spaces on the Kuznetsov component of Fano threefolds of index 2 (Franco Rota, April 15, 2020):
The derived category of a Fano threefold Y of Picard rank 1 and index 2 admits a semiorthogonal decomposition. This defines a non-trivial subcategory Ku(Y) called the Kuznetsov component, which encodes most of the geometry of Y.
I will present a joint work with M. Altavilla and M. Petkovic, in which we describe certain moduli spaces of Bridgeland-stable objects in Ku(Y), via the stability conditions constructed by Bayer, Macri, Lahoz and Stellari. Furthermore, in our work we study the behavior of the Abel-Jacobi map on these moduli space. As an application in the case of degree d=2, we prove a strengthening of a categorical Torelli Theorem by Bernardara and Tabuada.
This talk will be online, using webex

Higher K-theory via generators and relations (Ian Coley, April 8, 2020):
K₀ (the Grothendieck group) of an exact category has a nice description in terms of generators and relations. Nenashev (after Quillen and Gillet-Grayson) proved that K₁ can also be described in terms of generators and relations, and Grayson extended that argument to all higher K-groups. I will sketch Grayson's argument and (ideally) show some advantages of the generators and relations approach.
This talk will be online, using webex

On the Jordan property for local fundamental groups (Joaquin Moraga, April 1, 2020):
We discuss the Jordan property for the local fundamental group of klt singularities. We also show how the existence of a large Abelian subgroup of such a group reflects on the geometry of the singularity. Finally, we show a characterization theorem for klt 3-fold singularities with large local fundamental group.
This talk will be online, using webex

Six explicit pairs of fake projective planes (Lev Borisov, February 26, 2020):
I will briefly review the history of fake projective planes and will talk about my latest work on the subject, joint with Enrico Fatighenti.

Quantum geometry of moduli spaces of local system (Linhui Shen, February 19, 2020):
Let G be a split semi-simple algebraic group over Q. We introduce a natural cluster structure on moduli spaces of G-local systems over surfaces with marked points. As a consequence, the moduli spaces of G-local systems admit natural Poisson structures, and can be further quantized. We will study the principal series representations of such quantum spaces. It will recover many classical topics, such as the q-deformed Toda systems, quantum groups, and the modular functor conjecture for such representations. This talk will mainly be based on joint work with A.B. Goncharov.

The K'-theory of monoid sets (Chuck Weibel, February 5, 2020):
There are three flavors of K-theory for a pointed abelian monoid A; they depend on the A-sets one allows. This talk considers the well-behaved family of partially cancellative (pc) A-sets, and its K-theory. For example, if A is the natural numbers, then pc A-sets are just rooted trees.

Higher norm principles for norm varieties (Shira Gilat, January 22, 2020):
The norm principle for a division algebra states that the image of the reduced norm is an invariant of its Brauer-equivalence class. This can be generalized to symbols in the Milnor K-group K^M_n(F). We prove a generalized norm principle for symbols in K^M_n(F) for a prime-to-p closed field F of characteristic zero (for some prime p).  We also give a new proof for the norm principle for division algebras, using the decomposition theorem for (noncommutative) polynomials over the algebra.

Tropical scheme theory (Diane Mclagan, December 11, 2019):
Tropical geometry can be viewed as algebraic geometry over the tropical semiring (R union infinity, with operations min and +). This perspective has proved surprisingly effective over the last decade, but has so far has mostly been restricted to the study of varieties and cycles. I will discuss a program to construct a scheme theory for tropical geometry. This builds on schemes over semirings, but also introduces concepts from matroid theory. This is joint work with Felipe Rincon, involving also work of Jeff and Noah Giansiracusa and others.

Enumerating pencils with moving ramification on curves, (Carl Lian, November 20, 2019):
We consider the general problem of enumerating branched covers of the projective line from a fixed general curve subject to ramification conditions at possibly moving points. Our main computations are in genus 1; the theory of limit linear series allows one to reduce to this case. We first obtain a simple formula for a weighted count of pencils on a fixed elliptic curve E, where base-points are allowed. We then deduce, using an inclusion-exclusion procedure, formulas for the numbers of maps E→ P¹ with moving ramification conditions. A striking consequence is the invariance of these counts under a certain involution. Our results generalize work of Harris, Logan, Osserman, and Farkas-Moschetti-Naranjo-Pirola.

Noncommutative Laurent Phenomena: two examples (Volodia Retakh, November 13, 2019):
We discuss two examples when iterations of the noncommutative rational map are given by noncommutative Laurent polynomials. The first example is related to noncommutative triangulation of surfaces. The second example, which leads to a noncommutative version of the Catalan numbers, is related to solutions of determinant-like equations. The talk is based on joint papers with A. Berenstein from U. of Oregon.

Vertex algebras of CohFT-type (Angela Gibney, October 30, 2019):
Finitely generated admissible modules over "vertex algebras of CohFT-type" can be used to construct vector bundles of coinvariants and conformal blocks on moduli spaces of stable curves. In this talk I will say what vertex algebras of CohFT-type are, and explain how such bundles define semisimple cohomological field theories.
As an application, one can give an expression for their total Chern character in terms of the fusion rules. I'll give some examples.

Strong exceptional collections of line bundles (Chengxi Wang, October 23, 2019):
We study strong exceptional collections of line bundles on Fano toric Deligne-Mumford stacks with rank of Picard group at most two. We prove that any strong exceptional collection of line bundles generates the derived category of the stack, as long as the number of elements in the collection equals the rank of the (Grothendieck) K-theory group of the stack.
The problem reduces to an interesting combinatorial problem and is solved by combinatorial means.

Local-global principle for norm over semi-global fields, Sumit Chandra Mishra, Oct. 16, 2019):
Let K be a complete discretely valued field with residue field κ. Let F be a function field in one variable over K and X a regular proper model of F with reduced special fibre X a union of regular curves with normal crossings. Suppose that the graph associated to X is a tree (e.g. F = K(t). Let L/F be a Galois extension of degree n with Galois group Gand n coprime to char(κ). Suppose that κ is algebraically closed field or a finite field containing a primitive n^th root of unity. Then we show that an element in F* is a norm from the extension L/F if it is a norm from the extensions L⊗_FF_ν (i.e., $L\otimes_F F_\nu/F_\nu$) for all discrete valuations ν of F.

What is a derivator? (Ian Coley, October 9, 2019):
Derivators were introduced in the 90s by Grothendieck, Heller, and Franke (independently) to generalize triangulated categories and answer questions in homotopy theory and algebraic geometry using a more abstract framework. Since then, applications to modular representation theory, tensor triangulated geometry, tilting theory, K-theory, equivariant homotopy theory, and more have been developed by scores of mathematicians.
This talk will give the basic definition of a derivator, motivated by the initial question of enhancing a triangulated category, describe some of these useful applications to the "real world" away from category theory. We assume a priori the listener's interest in triangulated category theory and one or more of the above disciplines. In particular, no knowledge of infinity/quasicategories is required!

Generalized Brauer dimension and other arithmetic invariants of semi-global fields (Saurabh Gosavi, October 2, 19):
Given a finite set of Brauer classes B of a fixed period ℓ, we define ind(B) to be the gcd of degrees of field extensions L/F such that α⊗_FL=0 for every α in B. We provide upper-bounds for ind(B) which depends upon arithmetic invariants of fields of lower arithmetic complexity. As a simple application of our result, we will obtain upper-bounds for the splitting index of quadratic forms and finiteness of symbol length for function fields of curves over higher-local fields.

Rational singularities and their cousins in arbitrary characteristics (Sándor Kovacs, Sept. 18, 2019):
I will discuss several results about rational and closely related singularities in arbitrary characteristics. The results concern various properties of these singularities including their behavior with respect to deformations and degenerations, and applications to moduli theory.

On Makkai's Strong Conceptual Completeness Theorem (Jacob Lurie, Sept. 20, 2019):
One of the most fundamental results of mathematical logic is the celebrated Godel completeness theorem, which asserts that every consistent first-order theory T admits a model. In the 1980s, Makkai proved a much sharper result: any first-order theory T can be recovered, up to a suitable notion of equivalence, from its category of models Mod(T) together with some additional structure (supplied by the theory of ultraproducts). In this talk, I'll explain the statement of Makkai's theorem and sketch a new proof of it, inspired by the theory of "pro-etale sheaves" studied by Scholze and Bhatt-Scholze.

Severi degrees via representation theory (Dave Anderson, May 1, 2019):
As a vector space, the cohomology of the Grassmannian Gr(k,n) is isomorphic to the k-th exterior power of C^n. The geometric Satake correspondence explains how to naturally upgrade this isomorphism to one of $gl_n$-representations. Inspired by work of Golyshev and Manivel from 2011, we use these ideas to find new proofs of Giambelli formulas for ordinary and orthogonal Grassmannians, as well as rim-hook rules for quantum cohomology. This is joint with Antonio Nigro.

Severi degrees via representation theory (Yaim Cooper, April 24, 2019):
The Severi degrees of $P^1$ x $P^1$ can be computed in terms of an explicit operator on the Fock space $F[P^1]$. We will discuss this and variations on this theme. We will explain how to use this approach to compute the relative Gromov-Witten theory of other surfaces, such as Hirzebruch surfaces and Ex$P^1$. We will also discuss operators for calculating descendants. Joint with R. Pandharipande.

Continuous families of divisors on symmetric powers of curves (John Sheridan, April 17, 2019):
For X a smooth projective variety, we consider its set of effective divisors in a fixed cohomology class. This set naturally forms a projective scheme and if X is a curve, this scheme is a smooth, irreducible variety (fibered in linear systems over the Picard variety). However, when X is of higher dimension, this scheme can be singular and reducible. We study its structure explicitly when X is a symmetric power of a curve.

Character Tables and Sylow Subgroups of Finite Groups (Gabriel Navarro, April 10, 2019):
Brauer's Problem 12 asks which properties of Sylow subgroups can be detected in the character table of a finite group. We will talk about recent progress on this problem.

Effective divisors in the Hodge bundle (Iulia Gheorghita, April 3, 2019):
Computing effective divisor classes can reveal important information about the geometry of the underlying space. For example, in 1982 Harris and Mumford computed the Brill-Noether divisor class and used it to determine the Kodaira dimension of the moduli space of curves.
In this talk I will explain how to compute the divisor class of the locus of canonical divisors in the projectivized Hodge bundle over the moduli space of curves which have a zero at a Weierstrass point. I will also explain the extremality of the divisor class arising from the stratum of canonical divisors with a double zero.

The algebraic theory of systems (Louis Rowen, March 27, 2019):
The notion of ``system'' is introduced to unify classical algebra with tropical mathematics, hyperfields, and other related areas for which we can embed a partial algebraic structure into a fuller structure from which we can extract more information. The main ideas are a generalized negation map since our structures lack classical negatives, and a ``surpassing relation'' to replace equality.
We discuss this theory with emphasis on the main applications, which will be described from the beginning:
1. Classical algebra
2. Supertropical mathematics (used for valuations and tropicalization)
3. Symmetrized systems (used for embedding additively idempotent semi structures into systems)
4. Hyperfields

A Degree Formula for Equivariant Cohomology (Jeanne Duflot, March 13, 2019):
I will talk about a generalization of a result of Lynn on the "degree" of an equivariant cohomology ring $H^*_G(X)$. The degree of a graded module is a certain coefficient of its Poincaré series, expanded as a Laurent series about t=1. The main theorem, which is joint with Mark Blumstein, is an additivity formula for degree: $$\deg(H^*_G(X)) = \sum_{[A,c] \in \mathcal{Q'}_{max}(G,X)}\frac{1}{|W_G(A,c)|} \deg(H^*_{C_G(A,c)}(c)).$$

Volumes and intersection theory on moduli spaces of abelian differentials (Dawei Chen, February 20, 2019):
Computing volumes of moduli spaces has significance in many fields. For instance, the celebrated Witten's conjecture regarding intersection numbers on the Deligne-Mumford moduli space of stable curves has a fascinating connection to the Weil-Petersson volume, which motivated Mirzakhani to give a proof via Teichmueller theory, hyperbolic geometry, and symplectic geometry. The initial two other proofs of Witten's conjecture by Kontsevich and by Okounkov-Pandharipande also used various ideas in ribbon graphs, Gromov-Witten theory, and Hurwitz theory.
In this talk I will introduce an analogous formula of intersection numbers on the moduli spaces of abelian differentials that computes the Masur-Veech volumes. This is joint work with Moeller, Sauvaget, and Zagier (arXiv:1901.01785).

The Real graded Brauer group (Chuck Weibel, February 6, 2019):
We introduce a version of the Brauer--Wall group for Real vector bundles of algebras (in the sense of Atiyah), and compare it to the topological analogue of the Witt group. For varieties over the reals, these invariants capture the topological parts of the Brauer--Wall and Witt groups.

Paschke Categories, K-homology and the Riemann-Roch Transformation (Khashayar Sartipi, January 30, 2019):
For a separable C*-algebra A, we introduce an exact C*-category called the Paschke Category of A, which is completely functorial in A, and show that its K-theory groups are isomorphic to the topological K-homology groups of the C*-algebra A. Then we use the Dolbeault complex and ideas from the classical methods in Kasparov K-theory to construct an acyclic chain complex in this category, which in turn, induces a Riemann-Roch transformation in the homotopy category of spectra, from the algebraic K-theory spectrum of a complex manifold X, to its topological K-homology spectrum.

Palindromicity and the local invariant cycle theorem (Patrick Brosnan, January 23, 2019):
In its most basic form, the local invariant cycle theorem of Beilinson, Bernstein and Deligne (BBD) gives a surjection from the cohomology of the special fiber of a proper morphism of smooth varieties to the monodromy invariants of the general fiber. This result, which is one of the last theorems stated in the book by BBD, is a relatively easy consequence of their famous decomposition theorem.
In joint work with Tim Chow on a combinatorial problem, we needed a simple condition ensuring that the above surjection is actually an isomorphism. Our theorem is that this happens if and only if the special fiber has palindromic cohomology. I will explain the proof of this theorem and a generalization proved using the (now known) Kashiwara conjecture. I will also say a little bit about the combinatorial problem (the Shareshian-Wachs conjecture on Hessenberg varieties) which motivated our work.

2-Segal spaces and algebraic K-theory (Julie Bergner, November 28, 2018):
The notion of a 2-Segal space was defined by Dyckerhoff and Kapranov and independently by Galvez-Carrillo, Kock, and Tonks under the name of decomposition space. Although these two sets of authors had different motivations for their work, they both saw that a key example is obtained by applying Waldhausen's S-construction to an exact category, showing that 2-Segal spaces are deeply connected to algebraic K-theory.
In joint work with Osorno, Ozornova, Rovelli, and Scheimbauer, we show that any 2-Segal space arises from a suitable generalization of this construction. Furthermore, our generalized input has a close relationship to the CGW categories of Campbell and Zakharevich. In this talk, I'll introduce 2-Segal structures and discuss what we know and would like to know about the role they play in algebraic K-theory.

Low Degree Cohomology (Bob Guralnick November 14, 2018):
Let G be a finite group with V an absolutely irreducible kG-module with k a field of positive characteristic. We are interested in bounds on the dimension of the first and second degree cohomology groups of G with coefficients in V. We will discuss some old and new bounds, conjectures and applications.

Low degree points on curves (Isabel Vogt, November 7, 2018):
We will discuss an arithmetic analogue of the gonality of a curve over a number field: the smallest positive integer $e$ such that the points of residue degree bounded by $e$ are infinite. By work of Faltings, Harris-Silverman and Abramovich-Harris, it is understood when this invariant is 1, 2, or 3; by work of Debarre-Fahlaoui these criteria do not generalize to $e$ at least 4. We will focus on scenarios under which we can guarantee that this invariant is actually equal to the gonality using the auxiliary geometry of a surface containing the curve. This is joint work with Geoffrey Smith.

Algebraic groups with good reduction and unramified cohomology (Igor Rapinchuk, October 31, 2018):
Let $G$ be an absolutely almost simple algebraic group over a field K, which we assume to be equipped with a natural set V of discrete valuations. In this talk, our focus will be on the K-forms of $G$ that have good reduction at all v in V . When K is the fraction field of a Dedekind domain, a similar question was considered by G. Harder; the case where $K=\mathbb{Q}$ and V is the set of all p-adic places was analyzed in detail by B.H. Gross and B. Conrad. I will discuss several emerging results in the higher-dimensional situation, where K is the function field $k(C)$ of a smooth geometrically irreducible curve $C$ over a number field k, or even an arbitrary finitely generated field.

These problems turn out to be closely related to finiteness properties of unramified cohomology, and I will present available results over various classes of fields. I will also highlight some connections with other questions involving the genus of $G$ (i.e., the set of isomorphism classes of K-forms of $G$ having the same isomorphism classes of maximal K-tori as $G$), Hasse principles, etc. The talk will be based in part on joint work with V. Chernousov and A. Rapinchuk

Generalized Polar Geometry (Sandra Di Rocco, October 24, 2018):
Polar classes are very classical objects in Algebraic Geometry. A brief introduction to the subject will be presented and ideas and preliminarily results towards generalizations will be explained. These ideas can be applied towards variety sampling and relevant applications in Kinematics and Biochemistry.

Brauer class over the Picard scheme of curves (Qixiao Ma, October 24, 2018):
We study the Brauer class rising from the obstruction to the existence of a tautological line bundle on the Picard scheme of curves. If we consider the universal totally degenerate curve with a fixed dual graph, then, using symmetries of the graph, we give bounds on the period and index of the Brauer classes. As a result, we provide some division algebra of prime degree, serving as candidates for the cyclicity problem.

On singularity properties of convolutions of algebraic morphisms (Yotam Hendel, October 10, 2018):
In analysis, the convolution of two functions results in a smoother, better behaved function. It is interesting to ask whether an analogue of this phenomenon exists in the setting of algebraic geometry. Let $f$ and $g$ be two morphisms from algebraic varieties X and Y to an algebraic group $G$. We define their convolution to be a morphism $f*g$ from $X\times Y$ to $G$ by first applying each morphism and then multiplying using the group structure of $G$.

In this talk, we present some properties of this convolution operation, as well as a recent result which states that after finitely many self convolutions every dominant morphism $f:X\to G$ from a smooth, absolutely irreducible variety X to an algebraic group G becomes flat with reduced fibers of rational singularities (this property is abbreviated FRS). The FRS property is of particular interest since by works of Aizenbud and Avni, FRS morphisms are characterized by having fibers whose point count over the finite rings $Z/p^kZ$ is well-behaved. This leads to applications in probability, group theory, representation growth and more. We will discuss some of these applications, and if time permits, the main ideas of the proof which utilize model-theoretic methods. Joint work with Itay Glazer.

Irrationality of Motivic Zeta Functions (Michael Larsen, October 5, 2018):
It is a remarkable fact that the Riemann zeta function extends to a meromorphic function on the whole complex plane. A conjecture of Weil, proved by Dwork, asserts that the zeta function of any variety over a finite field is likewise meromorphic, from which it follows that it can be expressed as a rational function. In the case of curves, Kapranov observed that this is true in a very strong sense, which continues to hold even in characteristic zero. He asked whether this remains true for higher dimensional varieties. Valery Lunts and I disproved his conjecture fifteen years ago, and recently disproved a weaker conjecture due to Denef and Loeser. This explains, in some sense, why Weil's conjecture was so much easier in dimension 1 than in higher dimension.