University of Georgia
Department of Mathematics
Seminar Schedule
October 3– October 7, 2005
All Seminars are held in Boyd Graduate Studies Bldg. unless otherwise noted.

MONDAY, October 3, 2005

Topology/Geometry
2:30-4:30pm, Room 303
Speaker: Will Kazez, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Homeomorphisms of the punctured torus
Abstract: I will be discussing joint work with Ko Honda and Gordana Matic. I will give algebraic and topological descriptions of such classical objects as the automorphism group of a torus, Sl(2,Z), braid groups, Dehn twists, elementary row operations, the Farey graph and the Rademacher function. The talk will be self-contained.

Algebra
2:30-3:30pm., Room 410
Speaker: Jon Kujawa, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Cohomology made easy
Abstract: In these talks we will discover that Hilbert did cohomology in the 1890's, he just didn't realize it. Starting with Lie superalgebra cohomology one is quickly led to invariant theory. Thus, what is usually perceived as an abstract and technical subject instead becomes a problem of polynomials. In this talk we will introduce Lie superalgebras, cohomology, and see how invariant theory allows us to calculate cohomology explicitly and (relatively) easily.

This talk is intended for graduate students and nonexperts. All required background will be introduced. Members of the VIGRE algebra group are especially encouraged to attend.

Faculty and Graduate Social
3:00pm, Room 409
Coffee, Cookies, Tea

TUESDAY, October 4, 2005

VIGRE-Graduate Student Seminar
2:00p.m., Room 303
Speaker: Aaron Abrams, Emory University
Title of talk: TBA

Math Club Meeting
5:30pm, Room 302
Speaker: Dr. Jason Parsley, University of Georgia
Title of talk: The linking, twisting, and writhing of curves
All students interested in mathematics are welcomed, regardless of major. For more information visit: www.arches.uga.edu/~mathclub

WEDNESDAY, October 5, 2005

Algebraic Geometry
2:30-3:45pm, Room 410
Speaker: Jiayuan Lin, University of Georgia
Title of talk: A compactification of the space of holomorphic maps from projective line to projective space
Abstract: Let X be the space of (r+1)-tuples homogeneous polynomials in two variables of degree d modulo scalar. Let Y be the open subset of X parametrizing (r+1)-tuples homogeneous polynomials without common roots. Then Y is the space which parametrizes holomorphic maps of degree d from projective line to projective space. In general, the boundary X \Y is not a divisor, not to mention normal crossing. In this talk I will give a natural stratification of this boundary and show that we can process iterated blow-ups along these strata (or its proper transformations) to obtain a compactification (initially proposed by Yi Hu) of Y with normal crossing divisors.

Faculty and Graduate Social
3:00pm, Room 409
Coffee, Cookies, Tea

Number Theory
3:30p.m., Room 304
No Meeting this week

VIGRE-Algebra Group
3:45p.m., Room 326


THURSDAY, October 6, 2005

VIGRE-Feynman Diagrams
2:00pm, Room 326

VIGRE Algebraic Geometry Group
3:30 pm in Room 323

FRIDAY, October 7, 2005

Probability Theory
2:30pm, Room 303
Speaker: Lirong Yu, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Term structure modelling of defaultable bonds