Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

Hilbert's Nullstellensatz about zero sets of polynomials is one of the most fundamental correspondences between algebra and geometry. More recently, there has been an emerging interest in polynomial equations and inequalities in several matrix variables, prompted by developments in control systems, quantum information theory, operator algebras and optimization. The arising problems call for a suitable version of (real) algebraic geometry in noncommuting variables; with this in mind, the talk considers matricial sets where noncommutative polynomials attain singular values, and their algebraic counterparts.

Given a polynomial f in noncommuting variables, its free (singularity) locus is the set of all matrix tuples X such that f(X) is singular.  The talk focuses on the interplay between geometry of free loci (irreducible components, inclusions, eigenlevel sets, smooth points) and factorization in the free algebra. In particular, a Nullstellensatz for free loci is given, as well as a noncommutative variant of Bertini's irreducibility theorem and its consequences.