Seminars and Colloquia by Series

TBA by Julia Lindberg

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, April 27, 2026 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Julia LindbergGeorgia Institute of Technology

TBA

TBA by Maddie Brandt

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, April 13, 2026 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Maddie BrandtVanderbilt University

Please Note: There will be a pre-seminar.

TBA

TBA by Ikenna Nometa

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, April 6, 2026 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Ikenna NometaGeorgia Institute of Technology

TBA

TBA by Harold Blum

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, March 30, 2026 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Harold BlumGeorgia Institute of Technology

TBA

Towards an Unrestricted Cut-by-Curves Criterion for Overconvergence of $F$-Isocrystals

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, March 16, 2026 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Poornima BelvotagiUniversity of California San Diego

Please Note: There will be a pre-seminar at 10:55-11:25 in Skiles 005.

The theory of $p$-adic differential equations first rose to prominence after Dwork used them to prove the rationality of zeta functions of a positive characteristic variety in 1960. Since then, there has been growing interest in the category of convergent $F$-isocrystals and the subcategory of overconvergent $F$-isocrystals due to this subcategory having good cohomology theory with finiteness properties. Recent work by Grubb, Kedlaya and Upton examines when a convergent $F$-isocrystal is overconvergent by restricting to smooth curves on the scheme under a mild tameness assumption (measured by the Swan conductor). In my talk, I will introduce the above categories and talk about work in progress about bounding the Swan conductor of an overconvergent $F$-isocrystal in terms of data associated with the corresponding convergent $F$-isocrystal.

Quadratic Gromov--Witten invariants of rational del Pezzo surfaces of degree >5

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, March 9, 2026 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Kirsten WickelgrenDuke University

Please Note: There will be a pre-seminar at 10:55-11:25 in Skiles 005.

Quadratic Gromov--Witten invariants allow one to count curves on varieties over a field k satisfying geometric constraints while keeping track of arithmetic information about those curves. In particular, k does not need to be the field of complex or real numbers. These invariants were developed in joint work with Kass, Levine, and Solomon in genus 0 for del Pezzo surfaces. In this talk we will compute these invariants for rational del Pezzo surfaces of degree >5. To do this, we give these invariants the structure of an unramified Witt invariant for any fixed surface and degree. We then construct a multivariable unramified Witt invariant which conjecturally contains all of these invariants for k-rational surfaces. We prove this conjecture in degree >5. To do this, we study the behavior of these Gromov–Witten invariants during an algebraic analogue of surgery on del Pezzo surfaces. We obtain a surprisingly simple formula when uncomputable terms cancel out with an identity in (twisted) binomial coefficients in the Grothendieck–Witt group. This is joint work with Erwan Brugallé and Johannes Rau.

Line Shellings of Geometric Lattices

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, March 2, 2026 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Spencer BackmanUniversity of Vermont

Please Note: There will be a pre-seminar at 10:55-11:25 in Skiles 005.

Shellability is a fundamental concept in combinatorial topology and algebraic combinatorics. Two foundational results are Bruggesser–Mani’s line shellings of polytopes and Björner’s theorem that the order complex of a geometric lattice is shellable. 

Inspired by Bruggesser–Mani’s line shellings of polytopes, we introduce line shellings for the lattice of flats of a matroid:  given a normal complex for a Bergman fan of a matroid induced by a building set, we show that the lexicographic order of the coordinates of its vertices is a shelling order.  This yields a new geometric proof of Björner’s classical result and establishes shellability for all nested set complexes for matroids.

This is joint work with Galen Dorpalen-Barry, Anastasia Nathanson, Ethan Partida, and Noah Prime.

Formal GAGA for Brauer classes

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, February 23, 2026 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Siddharth MathurUniversity of Georgia

Please Note: There will be a pre-seminar at 10:55-11:25 in Skiles 005.

The relationship between analytic and algebraic geometry (GAGA) is a rich area of study. For example, Grothendieck's existence theorem states that if $X$ is proper over a complete local Noetherian ring $A$, then a compatible system of coherent sheaves on the thickenings $X_n$ of the special fiber is algebraizable. Such GAGA-type results are now standard tools for studying varieties and their families. In this talk, we answer a question Grothendieck posed in the 1960s: can a Brauer class on $X$ be determined from a compatible system of classes on the $X_n$'s? This is joint work with Andrew Kresch.

Linear algebra over hyperfields, and an application of the Topological Representation Theorem for oriented matroids

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, February 16, 2026 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Chayim LowenPrinceton University

Please Note: There will be a pre-seminar at 10:55-11:25 in Skiles 005. The speaker will propose a discussion of the relationship of fields to hyperfields and interesting examples of matroids of small rank (over nice hyperfields).

The Plücker embedding exhibits the Grassmannian Gr(r, n) as a closed subvariety of projective space. A theorem of Hodge shows that its homogeneous ideal has as a quadratic Gröbner basis the so-called multiple-exchange relations between Plücker coordinates. Since the set of these polynomials is quite large and unwieldy, it is often preferable to work with a smaller set of single-exchange Plücker relations. An even smaller set of polynomials is the collection of local (or 3-term) exchange relations. We will recall and clarify the relationships between these three. We go on to examine the situation over hyperfields. In their pioneering work, Baker and Bowler showed that the theories of matroids, oriented matroids, valuated matroids etc. can be collectively understood under a common banner as the theory of Grassmanians over hyperfields. Their work gives a good accounting of the relationship between single- and local-exchange relations in this generalized setting. We will discuss what can be said about the multiple-exchange relations. This leads to considerations of elementary linear-algebraic facts in the hyperfield setting. All results may be suitably extended to the flag setting---which we will discuss, time permitting. The talk is based on joint work with Nathan Bowler and Changxin Ding.

Degenerations and Uniformity

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, February 9, 2026 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Jit Wu YapMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Please Note: There will be a pre-seminar at 10:55-11:25 in Skiles 005.

Rescaling limits were first introduced by Jan Kiwi to study degenerations of rational maps of degree at least two. Building on the work of Luo and Favre–Gong, we explain how rescaling limits can serve as a substitute for a good compactification of $Rat_d$, the moduli space of degree d rational maps. In particular, this framework allows one to promote pointwise results to uniform statements in a systematic way. 

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