Seminar Schedule
April 17-21, 2006
All Seminars are held in Boyd Graduate Studies Bldg. unless otherwise noted.
MONDAY, April 17, 2006
Algebra
2:30pm, Room 410
Speaker: Sarah Mason, UPenn and UGA
Title of talk: Some properties of nonsymmetric Schur functions,
part II.
Abstract: The first talk will introduce the nonsymmetric Schur
functions and the combinatorial object (skyline augmented fillings) used to
define them. The main result is a bijection which provides a decomposition of
the ordinary Schur functions.
The second talk will describe a combinatorial application and an application
to Schubert polynomials. Specifically, we introduce an analgoue of the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth
algorithm in the nonsymmetric setting and a method for computing the standard
basis associated to a given partition and permutation.
Faculty and Graduate Student Social
3:00pm, Room 409
Coffee, Cookies, Tea
VIGRE-Algebraic Geometry
3:30pm, Room 304
Geometry-Topology Seminar
3:15 pm Skiles 269, Georgia Tech
Speaker: Dorothy Buck (Imperial College London)
Title of talk: Predicting DNA Knot/Link Type after Protein
Action
Abstract: DNA molecules often have a circular, or topologically
constrained, central axis. The topology of this axis can influence which, and
how, proteins interact with the underlying DNA. Subsequently, there are protein
families (e.g. recombinases) that change the DNA axis topology, for example
converting an unknot into a torus knot. Experimentally determining the minimal
crossing number (MCN) of the newly formed knots or links is tractable, but determining
the exact knot/link type is very difficult and expensive. Unfortunately there
are there are 1,701,936 knots with MCN \leq 16, so a finer sieve for predicting
the knots/links that arise from protein action is needed. In this talk, I'll
describe recent joint work with Erica Flapan, where we topologically prove that
all knots/links formed during DNA recombination must fall within a few well-defined
families. This substantially narrows the experiments needed to pinpoint the
exact knot/link type.
4:30 pm Skiles 269, Georgia Tech
Speaker: Mark Haskins (Imperial College London)
Title of talk: A gluing construction of higher genus special
Lagrangian cones
Abstract: We describe recent joint work with Nicos Kapouleas
in which we construct infinitely many new singularity types for special Lagrangian
submanifolds in dimension three. More specifically, for every odd natural number
n we construct a countably infinite family of special Lagrangian cones whose
link is a surface of genus n. The method we use is a 'gluing' argument or singular
perturbation result.
TUESDAY, April 18, 2006
VIGRE-Graduate
Student Seminar
2:00p.m., Room 304
Speaker: Patrick Corn, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Conics and quaternion algebras
Abstract: We will formulate an analogy between plane conic
curves and quaternion algebras over number fields, by analyzing the field extensions
over which they both become "trivial." This is the tip of a big iceberg--lurking
underwater are such things as Brauer groups, Galois cohomology, twists and descent,
and other beautiful concepts from algebraic geometry and number theory. We aim
to give a gentle introduction to some of these ideas, assuming no prior knowledge
of the subject.
Departmental Spring Meeting
3:30pm, Room 302
WEDNESDAY, April 19, 2006
Geometry in the Curriculum Seminar
1:25pm, Aderhold, Room 111
Speaker: Tom Banchoff, University of Georgia
Title of talk: What do we learn from the responses to the
workshop questionnaires?
Algebraic Geometry
2:30pm, Room 410
Speaker: Valery Alexeev, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Minimal model program, revisited
Abstract. I will explain solutions to a couple of open problems
in MMP.
VIGRE- Algebra
2:30pm, Room 303
Speaker: Emilie Wiesner, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Excluding weights for extra cohomology
Awards Ceremony
3:00pm, Room 409
Light refreshments will be served
Arithmetic Geometry/Number Theory
3:30pm, Room 304
Speaker: TBA
Title of talk: TBA
THURSDAY, April 20, 2006
VIGRE – Feynman Diagrams
2:00pm, Room 326
VIGRE – Cardiac Physiology
2:00pm, Room 640
VIGRE- Zeta Functions
2:15pm, Room 303
VIGRE-Algebraic Geometry
2:00pm, Room 304
Analysis
3:30pm, Room 222
Speaker: Akos Magyar, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Estimates on theta-functions and some applications.
Abstract: We investigate some properties of the Jacobi-theta
function and its relation to the distribution of solutions of quadratic equations
among the integers.
The talk should be accessible to graduate students with basic knowledge of complex analysis.
FRIDAY, April 21, 2006
Probability Theory
2:30-3:30pm, Room 303
Speaker: Dong Hoon Shin, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Filtering of Markov chains