Spring 2026
Time & Location: All talks are on Wednesday in Gibson Hall 126, at 3:00 PM unless otherwise noted.
Organizers: Kalina Mincheva and Alessandra Costantini
Information on up coming events can be found at unofficial seminar website: Here
January 14, 2026
Algebra and Combinatorics
Title: Frobenius singularities of permanental varieties
Speaker: Trung Chau - Chennai Mathematical Institute (Host): Tai Ha
Abstract: A permanent of a square matrix is exactly its determinant with all minus signs becoming plus. Despite the similarities, the computation of a determinant can be done in polynomial time, while that of a permanent is an NP-hard problem. In 2002, Laubenbacher and Swanson defined P_t(X) to be the ideal generated by all t-by-t subpermanents of X, and called it a permanental ideal. This is a counterpart of determinantal ideals, the center of many areas in Algebra and Geometry. We will discuss properties of P_2(X), including their Frobenius singularities over a field of prime characteristic, and related open questions.
January 21, 2026
Algebra and Combinatorics
Title: When Schubert Varieties Miss Being Toric by One
Speaker: Mahir Bilen Can - Tulane University
Abstract: Schubert and Richardson varieties in flag varieties provide a rich testing ground for various group actions. In this talk I will discuss two “borderline toric” phenomena. First, I will introduce nearly toric Schubert varieties. They are spherical Schubert varieties for which the smallest codimension of a torus orbit is one. Then I will explain a simple Coxeter-type classification of these examples, and why this “one step from toric” condition forces strong spherical behavior (in particular, it produces a large family of doubly-spherical Schubert varieties). Time permitting, I will also discuss toric Richardson varieties and a type-free combinatorial criterion: a Richardson variety is toric exactly when its Bruhat interval is a lattice (equivalently, it contains no subinterval of type S3, under a mild dimension hypothesis).
January 28, 2026
Algebra and Combinatorics
Title: Chow rings of moduli spaces of genus 0 curves with collisions
Speaker: William Newman - Ohio State University
Abstract: Simplicially stable spaces are alternative compactifications of M_{g,n} generalizing Hassett’s moduli spaces of weighted stable curves. We give presentations of the Chow rings of these spaces in genus 0. When considering the special case of \bar M_{0,n}, this gives a new proof of Keel’s presentation of CH(\bar M_{0,n}).
February 25, 2026
Algebra and Combinatorics
Title: A necessary and sufficient condition for detecting overlap in edge unfoldings of nearly flat convex caps.
Speaker: Nicholas Barvinok - Smith College
Abstract: By cutting a 3D convex polyhedron by a plane, we obtain a convex cap. By cutting on a boundary rooted spanning forest of the edge graph, we can unfold the cap into the plane. Nearly flat caps have unfoldings which are very close to their orthogonal projections. We take advantage of this to construct a necessary and sufficient condition for detecting overlap in the unfolding based on the orthogonal projection of the cap's edge graph. This is a recent result which is a joint work with Tyson Trauger. We also discuss two possible applications of this condition: a positive resolution to a special case of Durer's problem, and a necessary and sufficient condition for detecting overlap in infinitesimal edge unfoldings of arbitrary convex caps.
March 04, 2026
Algebra and Combinatorics
Title: Some results about saturation
Speaker: Stephen Landsittel - Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Harvard University (Host: Tai Ha)
Abstract: Given a local ring R we can ask when saturation of ideals in R commutes with other operations on ideals (such as extension to a ring containing R). We show that the condition that extension of ideals along a ring map R \to S commutes with saturation controls inherent properties of the rings R & S, such as Cohen-Macaulayness and unramifiedness.
