Geometry & Representation - Ben Webster (Waterloo)
Monday, October 1st, 2018
Time: 4:30-5:30 p.m. Place: Jeffery Hall 319
Speaker: Ben Webster (University of Waterloo/Perimeter Institute)
Title: Representation theory of symplectic singularities
Abstract: There are a lot of non-commutative algebras out there in the world, so if you want to study some of them, you have to have a theory about which are especially important. One class I find particularly interesting are non-commutative algebras which "almost" commutative and thus can be studied with algebraic geometry, giving a rough dictionary between certain non-commutative algebras and certain interesting spaces. This leads us to a new perspective on some well-known algebras, like universal enveloping algebras, and also to new ones we hadn't previously considered. The representations of the resulting algebras have a lot of interesting structure, and have applications both in combinatorics and in the construction of knot invariants.