Seminars and Colloquia by Series

TBD by Thomas Kahle

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, April 21, 2025 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Thomas KahleOvGU Magdeburg

TBD by Steven Karp

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, April 14, 2025 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Steven KarpUniversity of Notre Dame

On two Notions of Flag Positivity

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, March 31, 2025 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Jonathan BoretskyCentre de Recherches Mathématiques, Montreal

Please Note: There will be a preseminar from 10:55 to 11:15 in the morning in Skiles 005.

The totally positive flag variety of rank r, defined by Lusztig, can be described as the set of rank r flags of real linear subspaces which can be represented by a matrix whose minors are all positive. For flag varieties of consecutive rank, this equals the subset of the flag variety with positive Plücker coordinates, yielding a straightforward condition to determine whether a flag is totally positive. This generalizes the well-established fact, proven independently by many authors including Rietsch, Talaska and Williams, Lam, and Lusztig, that the totally positive Grassmannian equals the subset of the Grassmannian with positive Plücker coordinates. We discuss the "tropicalization" of this result, relating the nonnegative tropical flag variety to the nonnegative Dressian, a space parameterizing the regular subdivisions of flag positroid polytopes into flag positroid polytopes. Many results can be generalized to flag varieties of types B and C. This talk is primarily based on joint work with Chris Eur and Lauren Williams and joint work with Grant Barkley, Chris Eur and Johnny Gao.

Torsor structures on spanning quasi-trees of ribbon graphs

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, March 24, 2025 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Changxin DingGeorgia Tech

Previous work of Chan-Church-Grochow and Baker-Wang shows that the set of spanning trees in a plane graph G is naturally a torsor for the Jacobian group of G. Informally, this means that the set of spanning trees of G naturally forms a group, except that there is no distinguished identity element. We generalize this fact to graphs embedded on orientable surfaces of arbitrary genus, which can be identified with ribbon graphs. In this generalization, the set of spanning trees of G is replaced by the set of spanning quasi-trees of the ribbon graph, and the Jacobian group of G is replaced by the Jacobian group of the associated regular orthogonal matroid M.

Our proof shows, more generally, that the family of "BBY torsors'' constructed by Backman-Baker-Yuen and later generalized by Ding admit natural generalizations to regular orthogonal matroids. In addition to shedding light on the role of planarity in the earlier work mentioned above, our results represent one of the first substantial applications of orthogonal matroids to a natural combinatorial problem about graphs. 

 Joint work with Matt Baker and Donggyu Kim. 

Forbidden Minor Results for Flag Matroids

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, March 10, 2025 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Nathaniel VaduthalaTulane University

Please Note: There will be a pre-seminar from 10:55 to 11:15 in Skiles 005.

Similar to how matroids can be viewed as a combinatorial abstraction of linear subspaces, a flag matroid can be viewed as a combinatorial abstraction of a nested sequence of linear subspaces. In this talk, we will discuss forbidden minor results that describe precisely when a flag matroid is representable and when it is graphic. 

Strong u-invariant and Period-Index Bounds

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, March 3, 2025 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Shilpi MandalEmory University

Please Note: There will be a pre-seminar from 10:55 am to 11:15 am in Skiles 005.

For a central simple algebra A over a field K, there are two major invariants, viz., period and index. For a field K, the Brauer-l-dimension of K for a prime number l, is the smallest natural number d such that for every finite field extension L/K and every central simple L-algebra A (of period a power of l), we have that index(A) divides period(A)d.

If K is a number field or a local field, then classical results from class field theory tell us that the Brauer-l-dimension of K is 1. This invariant is expected to grow under a field extension, bounded by the transcendence degree. Some recent works in this area include that of Harbater-Hartmann-Krashen for K a complete discretely valued field, in the good characteristic case. In the bad characteristic case, for such fields K, Parimala-Suresh have given some bounds.

Also, the u-invariant of K is the maximal dimension of anisotropic quadratic forms over K. For example, the u-invariant of C is 1, for F a non-real global or local field the u-invariant of F is 1, 2, 4, or 8, etc.

In this talk, I will present similar bounds for the Brauer-l-dimension and the strong u-invariant of a complete non-Archimedean valued field K with residue field κ.

The moduli space of matrices

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, February 24, 2025 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Victoria Schleis Durham University

Please Note: There is a pre-seminar from 10:55 to 11:15 in Skiles 005.

We introduce combinatorial B-matrices over ordered blueprints B, which are combinatorial analogues of matrices and correspond to "matroids with a fixed basis". This provides a unifying framework for the study of bimatroids, linking sets, and their valuated analogues.  We then introduce and study their corresponding moduli spaces and describe their relations to the moduli space of matroids, introduced by Baker and Lorscheid. Inspired by the underlying combinatorics in the classical case, this allows us to define several interesting functors between moduli spaces of matrices and moduli spaces of matroids, and, by extension, between moduli spaces of matroids of different ranks.

Parts of this talk are based on joint work in progress with Martin Ulirsch.

Flat families of matrix Hessenberg schemes over the minimal sheet

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, February 10, 2025 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Rebecca GoldinGeorge Mason University

Please Note: There will be a pre-seminar at 10:55 am in Skiles 005.

The flag variety G/B plays an outsized role in representation theory, combinatorics, geometry and algebra. Hessenberg varieties form a special class of subvarietes of the flag variety, arising in diverse contexts. The cohomology ring of a semisimple Hessenberg variety is recognized to be a representation of an associated finite group, and is related to the expansion of some special polynomials in terms of other well-known polynomial bases. These varieties may have pathological behavior, and their basic properties have been characterized only in restricted cases. Matrix Hessenberg schemes in type A consist of a lift of these varieties to G = Gl(n, C), where we can use the coordinate ring of matrices to study them.

In this talk, we present a full characterization of matrix Hessenberg schemes over the minimal sheet of Lie(G) in type A. We show that each semisimple matrix Hessenberg scheme lies in a flat family with a nilpotent matrix Hessenberg scheme, which in turn allows us to study their geometric properties. We describe the schemes fully in terms of Schubert varieties and opposite Schubert varieties, both well-known subvarieties of G/B. More subtly we characterize combinatorially which matrix Hessenberg schemes are reduced. These results are joint with Martha Precup at Washington University, St. Louis. 

The Cayley-Bacharach Condition and Matroid Theory

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, February 3, 2025 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Rohan NairEmory University

Please Note: There will be a pre-talk from 10:55am to 11:15am in Skiles 005.

Given a finite set of points Γ in Pn, we say that Γ satisfies the Cayley-Bacharach condition with respect to degree r polynomials, or is CB(r), if any degree r homogeneous polynomial F vanishing on all but one point of Γ must vanish at the last point. In recent literature, the condition has played an important role in computing a birational invariant called the degree of irrationality of complex projective varieties. However, the condition itself has not been studied extensively, and surprisingly little is known about the geometric properties of CB(r) points. 

In this talk, I will discuss a new combinatorial approach to the study of the CB(r) condition, using matroid theory, and present some examples of how matroid theory can shed light on the underlying geometry of such sets.
 

Tensor decompositions with applications to LU and SLOCC equivalence of multipartite pure states

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, January 27, 2025 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Ian TanAuburn University

Please Note: There will be a pre-seminar at 10:55 am in Skiles 005.

We introduce a broad lemma, one consequence of which is the higher order singular value decomposition (HOSVD) of tensors defined by DeLathauwer, DeMoor and Vandewalle (2000). By an analogous application of the lemma, we find a complex orthogonal version of the HOSVD. Kraus's (2010) algorithm used the HOSVD to compute normal forms of almost all n-qubit pure states under the action of the local unitary group. Taking advantage of the double cover SL2(C)×SL2(C)→SO4(C) , we produce similar algorithms (distinguished by the parity of n) that compute normal forms for almost all n-qubit pure states under the action of the SLOCC group.

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