Algebra and Algebraic Geometry Seminar Spring 2018
The seminar meets on Fridays at 2:25 pm in room B235.
Here is the schedule for the previous semester, the next semester, and for this semester.
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Schedules
Spring 2018 Schedule
Abstracts
Tasos Moulinos
Derived Azumaya Algebras and Twisted K-theory
Topological K-theory of dg-categories is a localizing invariant of dg-categories over [math]\displaystyle{ \mathbb{C} }[/math] taking values in the [math]\displaystyle{ \infty }[/math]-category of [math]\displaystyle{ KU }[/math]-modules. In this talk I describe a relative version of this construction; namely for [math]\displaystyle{ X }[/math] a quasi-compact, quasi-separated [math]\displaystyle{ \mathbb{C} }[/math]-scheme I construct a functor valued in the [math]\displaystyle{ \infty }[/math]-category of sheaves of spectra on [math]\displaystyle{ X(\mathbb{C}) }[/math], the complex points of [math]\displaystyle{ X }[/math]. For inputs of the form [math]\displaystyle{ \operatorname{Perf}(X, A) }[/math] where [math]\displaystyle{ A }[/math] is an Azumaya algebra over [math]\displaystyle{ X }[/math], I characterize the values of this functor in terms of the twisted topological K-theory of [math]\displaystyle{ X(\mathbb{C}) }[/math]. From this I deduce a certain decomposition, for [math]\displaystyle{ X }[/math] a finite CW-complex equipped with a bundle [math]\displaystyle{ P }[/math] of projective spaces over [math]\displaystyle{ X }[/math], of [math]\displaystyle{ KU(P) }[/math] in terms of the twisted topological K-theory of [math]\displaystyle{ X }[/math] ; this is a topological analogue of a result of Quillen’s on the algebraic K-theory of Severi-Brauer schemes.
Roman Fedorov
A conjecture of Grothendieck and Serre on principal bundles in mixed characteristic
Let G be a reductive group scheme over a regular local ring R. An old conjecture of Grothendieck and Serre predicts that such a principal bundle is trivial, if it is trivial over the fraction field of R. The conjecture has recently been proved in the "geometric" case, that is, when R contains a field. In the remaining case, the difficulty comes from the fact, that the situation is more rigid, so that a certain general position argument does not go through. I will discuss this difficulty and a way to circumvent it to obtain some partial results.
Juliette Bruce
Asymptotic Syzygies in the Semi-Ample Setting
In recent years numerous conjectures have been made describing the asymptotic Betti numbers of a projective variety as the embedding line bundle becomes more ample. I will discuss recent work attempting to generalize these conjectures to the case when the embedding line bundle becomes more semi-ample. (Recall a line bundle is semi-ample if a sufficiently large multiple is base point free.) In particular, I will discuss how the monomial methods of Ein, Erman, and Lazarsfeld used to prove non-vanishing results on projective space can be extended to prove non-vanishing results for products of projective space.
Andrei Caldararu
Computing a categorical Gromov-Witten invariant
In his 2005 paper "The Gromov-Witten potential associated to a TCFT" Kevin Costello described a procedure for recovering an analogue of the Gromov-Witten potential directly out of a cyclic A-inifinity algebra or category. Applying his construction to the derived category of sheaves of a complex projective variety provides a definition of higher genus B-model Gromov-Witten invariants, independent of the BCOV formalism. This has several advantages. Due to the categorical invariance of these invariants, categorical mirror symmetry automatically implies classical mirror symmetry to all genera. Also, the construction can be applied to other categories like categories of matrix factorization, giving a direct definition of FJRW invariants, for example.
In my talk I shall describe the details of the computation (joint with Junwu Tu) of the invariant, at g=1, n=1, for elliptic curves. The result agrees with the predictions of mirror symmetry, matching classical calculations of Dijkgraaf. It is the first non-trivial computation of a categorical Gromov-Witten invariant.
Aron Heleodoro
Normally ordered tensor product of Tate objects and decomposition of higher adeles
In this talk I will introduce the different tensor products that exist on Tate objects over vector spaces (or more generally coherent sheaves on a given scheme). As an application, I will explain how these can be used to describe higher adeles on an n-dimensional smooth scheme. Both Tate objects and higher adeles would be introduced in the talk. (This is based on joint work with Braunling, Groechenig and Wolfson.)
Moisés Herradón Cueto
Local type of difference equations
The theory of algebraic differential equations on the affine line is very well-understood. In particular, there is a well-defined notion of restricting a D-module to a formal neighborhood of a point, and these restrictions are completely described by two vector spaces, called vanishing cycles and nearby cycles, and some maps between them. We give an analogous notion of "restriction to a formal disk" for difference equations that satisfies several desirable properties: first of all, a difference module can be recovered uniquely from its restriction to the complement of a point and its restriction to a formal disk around this point. Secondly, it gives rise to a local Mellin transform, which relates vanishing cycles of a difference module to nearby cycles of its Mellin transform. Since the Mellin transform of a difference module is a D-module, the Mellin transform brings us back to the familiar world of D-modules.
Eva Elduque
On the signed Euler characteristic property for subvarieties of Abelian varieties
Franecki and Kapranov proved that the Euler characteristic of a perverse sheaf on a semi-abelian variety is non-negative. This result has several purely topological consequences regarding the sign of the (topological and intersection homology) Euler characteristic of a subvariety of an abelian variety, and it is natural to attempt to justify them by more elementary methods. In this talk, we'll explore the geometric tools used recently in the proof of the signed Euler characteristic property. Joint work with Christian Geske and Laurentiu Maxim.
Harrison Chen
Equivariant localization for periodic cyclic homology and derived loop spaces
There is a close relationship between derived loop spaces, a geometric object, and (periodic) cyclic homology, a categorical invariant. In this talk we will discuss this relationship and how it leads to an equivariant localization result, which has an intuitive interpretation using the language of derived loop spaces. We discuss ongoing generalizations and potential applications in computing the periodic cyclic homology of categories of equivariant (coherent) sheaves on algebraic varieties.
Phil Tosteson
Stability in the homology of Deligne-Mumford compactifications
The space [math]\displaystyle{ \bar M_{g,n} }[/math] is a compactification of the moduli space algebraic curves with marked points, obtained by allowing smooth curves to degenerate to nodal ones. We will talk about how the asymptotic behavior of its homology, [math]\displaystyle{ H_i(\bar M_{g,n}) }[/math], for [math]\displaystyle{ n \gg 0 }[/math] can be studied using the representation theory of the category of finite sets and surjections.
Wei Ho
Noncommutative Galois closures and moduli problems
In this talk, we will discuss the notion of a Galois closure for a possibly noncommutative algebra. We will explain how this problem is related to certain moduli problems involving genus one curves and torsors for Jacobians of higher genus curves. This is joint work with Matt Satriano.
Daniel Corey
Initial degenerations of Grassmannians
Let Gr_0(d,n) denote the open subvariety of the Grassmannian Gr(d,n) consisting of d-1 dimensional subspaces of P^{n-1} meeting the toric boundary transversely. We prove that Gr_0(3,7) is schoen in the sense that all of its initial degenerations are smooth. The main technique we will use is to express the initial degenerations of Gr_0(3,7) as a inverse limit of thin Schubert cells. We use this to show that the Chow quotient of Gr(3,7) by the maximal torus H in GL(7) is the log canonical compactification of the moduli space of 7 lines in P^2 in linear general position.
Alena Pirutka
Irrationality problems
Let X be a projective algebraic variety, the set of solutions of a system of homogeneous polynomial equations. Several classical notions describe how ``unconstrained the solutions are, i.e., how close X is to projective space: there are notions of rational, unirational and stably rational varieties. Over the field of complex numbers, these notions coincide in dimensions one and two, but diverge in higher dimensions. In the last years, many new classes of non stably rational varieties were found, using a specialization technique, introduced by C. Voisin. This method also allowed to prove that the rationality is not a deformation invariant in smooth and projective families of complex varieties: this is a joint work with B. Hassett and Y. Tschinkel. In my talk I will describe classical examples, as well as the recent progress around these rationality questions.
Nero Budur
Homotopy of singular algebraic varieties
By work of Simpson, Kollár, Kapovich, every finitely generated group can be the fundamental group of an irreducible complex algebraic variety with only normal crossings and Whitney umbrellas as singularities. In contrast, we show that if a complex algebraic variety has no weight zero 1-cohomology classes, then the fundamental group is strongly restricted: the irreducible components of the cohomology jump loci of rank one local systems containing the constant sheaf are complex affine tori. Same for links and Milnor fibers. This is joint work with Marcel Rubió.
Alexander Yom Din
Drinfeld-Gaitsgory functor and contragradient duality for (g,K)-modules
Drinfeld suggested the definition of a certain endo-functor, called the pseudo-identity functor (or the Drinfeld-Gaitsgory functor), on the category of D-modules on an algebraic stack. We extend this definition to an arbitrary DG category, and show that if certain finiteness conditions are satisfied, this functor is the inverse of the Serre functor. We show that the pseudo-identity functor for (g,K)-modules is isomorphic to the composition of cohomological and contragredient dualities, which is parallel to an analogous assertion for p-adic groups.
In this talk I will try to discuss some of these results and around them. This is joint work with Dennis Gaitsgory.
John Lesieutre
Some higher-dimensional cases of the Kawaguchi-Silverman conjecture
Given a dominant rational self-map f : X -->X of a variety defined over a number field, the first dynamical degree $\lambda_1(f)$ and the arithmetic degree $\alpha_f(P)$ are two measures of the complexity of the dynamics of f: the first measures the rate of growth of the degrees of the iterates f^n, while the second measures the rate of growth of the heights of the iterates f^n(P) for a point P. A conjecture of Kawaguchi and Silverman predicts that if P has Zariski-dense orbit, then these two quantities coincide. I will prove this conjecture in several higher-dimensional settings, including for all automorphisms of hyper-K\"ahler varieties. This is joint work with Matthew Satriano.