University of Georgia
Department of Mathematics
Seminar Schedule
January 16, 2006 - January 20, 2006
All Seminars are held in Boyd Graduate Studies Bldg. unless otherwise noted.

MONDAY, January 16, 2006

MLK Holiday

TUESDAY, January 17, 2006

VIGRE-Graduate Student Seminar
2:00p.m., Room 304
Speaker: Jason Parsley, University of Georgia
Title: The Borromean Rings
Abstract: The Borromean Rings are three circles* where no two of them can be pulled apart, but the three curves together cannot be separated. We will discuss their history and talk about ways to show they are in fact linked.
* We will also show that you can't actually make the Borromean rings out of three circles but could use ellipses instead. We'll end with some connections to algebraic topology.

Ed Azoff Tea Social
3:00pm, Room 409
Coffee, Cookies, Tea

Colloquium
3:30pm, Room 302
Speaker: Evgueni Tevelev, Univ. of Texas at Austin
Title of talk: Equations of the moduli space of stable rational curves
Abstract: At the most basic level, algebraic geometry studies (systems of) polynomial equations and the geometry of their solutions. Nowadays algebraic varieties are usually defined in an abstract functorial way and their equations (if one can find them!) provide an important information about their geometry, deformations, degenerations, etc. I will explain when equations are considered nice (Green-Lazarsfeld properties and Koszul algebras). I'll describe joint work with Sean Keel where we find equations in the Lie operad of the moduli space of stable rational curves .

WEDNESDAY, January 18, 2006

Geometry in the Curriculum Seminar
1:25pm, Room 111, Aderhold
Speakers: Tom Banchoff and Clint McCrory
Organizational Meeting
This teaching seminar will explore the role of geometry in the college and pre-college curriculum. For mathematicians this is an opportunity to learn what geometry is taught in public schools these days, and what is required of Math Ed and Elementary Ed majors. Tom will discuss what he's doing in vector calculus (MATH 2500) this term, and Clint will discuss the geometry course for Math Ed majors (MATH 5200). If you are curious about Tom's internet-based courseware, this is the place to learn more about it.

VIGRE- Algebra
2:30pm, Room 303
Speaker: Brian Boe, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Proof of Kostant's Theorem, continued

Algebraic Geometry
2:30pm, Room 410
Speaker: Jenia Tevelev (U Texas, Austin)
Title: Modular, log canonical, and tropical compactifications
Abstract: The celebrated moduli space of stable curves of Grothendieck, Knudsen, and Mumford admits a straightforward generalization in all dimensions: the moduli space of stable pairs introduced by Kollar, Shepherd-Barron, and Alexeev. Their construction is not effective and relies on the Minimal Model Program. I'll describe joint work with Hacking and Keel where we construct the moduli space of stable Del Pezzo surfaces and describe its boundary using non-archimedean amoebas. This is one instance of the beautiful connection between the Mori theory and the so-called "tropical geometry".

Arithmetic Geometry/Number Theory
3:30pm, Room 304
Speaker: TBA
Title of talk: TBA

VIGRE - Geometric Knot Theory
4:00pm, Room 439

THURSDAY, January 19, 2006

VIGRE – Feynman Diagrams
2:00pm, Room 326

VIGRE – Cardiac Physiology
2:00pm, Room 640

VIGRE - Algebraic Geometry
2:00pm, Room 304

VIGRE - Zeta Functions
2:15pm, Room 303

Ed Azoff Tea Social
3:00pm, Room 409
Coffee, Cookies, Tea

Colloquium
3:30pm, Room 302
Speaker: Wee Lian Gan, MIT
Title of talk: Symplectic reflection algebras and quantum Hamiltonian reduction
Abstract: Symplectic reflection algebras of wreath-product type give noncommutative deformations of the symmetric products of Kleinian singularities. The representation theory of these algebras is expected to be closely related to the geometry of Hilbert schemes of points on minimal resolutions of the Kleinian singularities. I will give an overview of some recent developments.

FRIDAY, January 20, 2006

Probability Theory
2:30-3:30pm, Room 303
Speaker: Qing Zhang, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Filtering theory