## Seminars and Colloquia by Series

Wednesday, March 5, 2014 - 15:00 , Location: Skiles 254 , Annette Werner , Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität (Frankfurt) , Organizer: Joseph Rabinoff
The goal of this talk is to show that Bruhat-Tits buildings can be investigated with analytic geometry. After introducing the theory of Bruhat-Tits buildings we show that they can be embedded in a natural way into Berkovich analytic flag varieties. The image of the building is contained in an open subset which in the case of projective space is Drinfeld's well-known p-adic upper half plane. In this way we can compactify buildings in a natural way.
Monday, March 3, 2014 - 15:05 , Location: Skiles 005 , , Auburn University , Organizer: Anton Leykin
In Computer Vision and multi-view geometry one considers several cameras in general position as a collection of projection maps. One would like to understand how to reconstruct the 3-dimensional image from the 2-dimensional projections. [Hartley-Zisserman] (and others such as Alzati-Tortora and Papadopoulo-Faugeras)  described several natural multi-linear (or tensorial) constraints which record certain relations between the cameras such as the epipolar, trifocal, and quadrifocal tensors. (Don't worry, the story stops at quadrifocal tensors!) A greater understanding of these tensors is needed for Computer Vision, and Algebraic Geometry and Representation Theory provide some answers.I will describe a uniform construction of the epipolar, trifocal and quadrifocal tensors via equivariant projections of a Grassmannian. Then I will use the beautiful Algebraic Geometry and Representation Theory, which naturally arrises in the construction, to recover some known information (such as symmetry and dimensions) and some new information (such as defining equations).  Part of this work is joint with Chris Aholt (Microsoft).
Monday, February 24, 2014 - 15:05 , Location: Skiles 005 , , Clemson University , Organizer: Anton Leykin
Buchberger (1965) gave  the first algorithm for computing Groebner bases and introduced some simple criterions for detecting useless S-pairs. Faugere (2002)  presented the F5 algorithm which is significantly much faster  than Buchberger's algorithm and can detect all useless S-pairs for regular sequences of homogeneous polynomials.  In recent years, there has been extensive effort trying to simply F5 and to give a rigorous mathematical foundation for F5. In this talk, we present a simple new criterion for strong Groebner bases that contain Groebner bases for both ideals and  the related syzygy modules.  This criterion can detect all useless J-pairs (without performing any reduction)  for any sequence of polynomials, thus yielding an efficient algorithm for computing Groebner bases and  a simple proof of finite termination of the algorithm. This is a joint work with  Frank Volny IV (National Security Agency) and Mingsheng Wang (Chinese Academy of Sciences).
Monday, February 17, 2014 - 15:05 , Location: Skiles 006 , Eric Katz , University of Waterloo , Organizer: Matt Baker
Given a surface in space with a set of curves on it, one can ask whichpossible combinatorial arrangement of curves are possible.  We give anenriched formulation of this question in terms of which two-dimensionalfans occur as the tropicalization of an algebraic surface in space.  Ourmain result is that the arrangement is either degenerate or verycomplicated.  Along the way, we introduce tropical Laplacians, ageneralization of graph Laplacians, explain their relation to the Colin deVerdiere invariant and to tensegrity frameworks in dynamics.This is joint work with June Huh.
Friday, January 10, 2014 - 16:05 , Location: Skiles 006 , Orsola Tomassi , Leibniz University Hannover , Organizer: Matt Baker
It is well known that the cohomology of the moduli space A_g of g-dimensional principally polarized abelian varieties stabilizes when the degree is smaller than g. This is a classical result of Borel on the stable cohomology of the symplectic group. By work of Charney and Lee, also the stable cohomology of the minimal compactification of A_g, the Satake compactification, is explicitly known.In this talk, we consider the stable cohomology of toroidal compactifications of A_g, concentrating on the perfect cone compactification and the matroidal partial compactification. We prove stability results for these compactifications and show that all stable cohomology is algebraic. This is joint work with S. Grushevsky and K. Hulek.
Friday, January 10, 2014 - 15:05 , Location: Skiles 006 , Remke Kloosterman , Humboldt University Berlin , Organizer: Matt Baker
Let $C=\{f(z_0,z_1,z_2)=0\}$ be a complex plane curve with ADE singularities. Let $m$ be a divisor of the degree of $f$ and let $H$ be the hyperelliptic curve $y^2=x^m+f(s,t,1)$ defined over $\mathbb{C}(s,t)$. In this talk we explain how one can determine the Mordell-Weil rank of the Jacobian of $H$ effectively. For this we use some results on the Alexander polynomial of $C$. This extends a result by Cogolludo-Augustin and Libgober for the case where $C$ is a curve with ordinary cusps.  In the second part we discuss how one can do a similar approach over fields like $\mathbb{Q}(s,t)$ and $\mathbb{F}(s,t)$.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - 11:05 , Location: Skiles 006 , Noah Giansiricusa , UC Berkeley , Organizer: Matt Baker
I'll discuss joint work with J.H. Giansiracusa (Swansea) in which we study scheme theory over the tropical semiring T, using the notion of semiring schemes provided by Toen-Vaquie, Durov, or Lorscheid. We define tropical hypersurfaces in this setting and a tropicalization functor that sends closed subschemes of a toric variety over a field with non-archimedean valuation to closed subschemes of the corresponding toric variety over T. Upon passing to the set of T-valued points this yields Payne's extended tropicalization functor. We prove that the Hilbert polynomial of any projective subscheme is preserved by our tropicalization functor, so the scheme-theoretic foundations developed here reveal a hidden flatness in the degeneration sending a variety to its tropical skeleton.
Monday, December 2, 2013 - 15:00 , Location: Skiles 006 , Joseph Rabinoff , Georgia Tech , , Organizer: Salvador Barone
Let X be an algebraic curve over a non-archimedean field K. If the genus of X is at least 2 then X has a minimal skeleton S(X), which is a metric graph of genus <= g. A metric graph has a Jacobian J(S(X)), which is a principally polarized real torus whose dimension is the genus of S(X). The Jacobian J(X) also has a skeleton S(J(X)), defined in terms of the non-Archimedean uniformization theory of J(X), and which is again a principally polarized real torus with the same dimension as J(S(X)). I'll explain why S(J(X)) and J(S(X)) are canonically isomorphic, and I'll indicate what this isomorphism has to do with several classical theorems of Raynaud in arithmetic geometry.
Monday, November 25, 2013 - 15:00 , Location: Skiles 005 , Jesse Kass , University of South Carolina , , Organizer: Kirsten Wickelgren
The Jacobian variety of a smooth complex curve is a complex torus that admits two different algebraic descriptions. The Jacobian can be described as the Picard variety, which is the moduli space of line bundles, or it can be described as the Albanese variey, which is the universal abelian variety that contains the curve. I will talk about how to extend a family of Jacobians varieties by adding degenerate fibers.  Corresponding to the two different descriptions of the Jacobian are two different extensions of the Jacobian: the Neron model and the relative moduli space of stable sheaves. I will explain what these two extensions are and then prove that they are equivalent. This equivalence has surprising consequences for both the Neron model and the moduli space of stable sheaves.
Monday, November 18, 2013 - 16:05 , Location: Skiles 006 , Wei Ho , Columbia University , Organizer: Matt Baker
There are well-known explicit families of K3 surfaces equipped with a low degree polarization, e.g., quartic surfaces in P^3. What if one specifies multiple line bundles instead of a single one? We will discuss representation-theoretic constructions of such families, i.e., moduli spaces for K3 surfaces whose Neron-Severi groups contain specified lattices. These constructions, inspired by arithmetic considerations, also involve some fun geometry and combinatorics. This is joint work with Manjul Bhargava and Abhinav Kumar.