Algebra / Number Theory / Combinatorics Seminar

A classic and fundamental result in number theory is due to Mordell who proved that the set of points on an elliptic curve defined over a number field forms a […]

Counting points on algebraic curves over finite fields has numerous applications in communications and cryptology, and has led to some of the most beautiful results in 20th century arithmetic geometry. A natural generalization […]

If $F$ is a finite field and $d$ is a positive integer relatively prime to $|F^\times|$, then the power map $x \mapsto x^d$ is a permutation of $F$, and so is called […]

Mathematicians like to count things. Often in very complicated and fancy ways. In this talk I will explain how we can use quantum Airy structures -- an abstract formalism recently […]

We review some recent developments in the study of biquandle brackets and other quantum enhancements.

Domination in graphs has been an important and active topic in graph theory for over 40 years. It has immediate applications in visibility and controllability. In this talk we will discuss a generalization of domination called exponential domination. A vertex $v$ in an exponential dominating set assigns weight $2^{1−dist(v,u)}$ to vertex $u$. An exponential dominating […]

Probability is a now-classic tool in combinatorics, especially graph theory. Some applications of probabilistic techniques are: (1) describing the typical/expected properties of a class of objects, (2) uncovering phase transitions and sudden thresholds in the dependence of one property on another, and (3) producing examples of conjectured or unusual objects. (This last technique is sometimes […]

Probability is a now-classic tool in combinatorics, especially graph theory. Some applications of probabilistic techniques are: (1) describing the typical/expected properties of a class of objects, (2) uncovering phase transitions and sudden thresholds in the dependence of one property on another, and (3) producing examples of conjectured or unusual objects. (This last technique is sometimes […]

In this talk, I will describe an approach to finding upper bounds for the number of arithmetic operations necessary for doing harmonic analysis on permutation modules of finite groups. The approach takes advantage of the intrinsic orbital structure of permutation modules, and it uses the multiplicities of irreducible submodules within individual orbital spaces to express […]

Several conditions are known for a self-inversive polynomial that ascertain the location of its roots, and we present a framework for comparison of those conditions. We associate a parametric family of polynomials p_α(x) to each such polynomial p, and define cn(p), il(p) to be the sharp threshold values of α that guarantee that, for all […]

Let K be a field and S = K be the polynomial ring in n variables over K. For a graded S-module M with minimal free resolution the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity  is defined. We survey a number of recent studies of the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of the ideals related to a graph and their (symbolic) powers. Our […]

Let S be a set of k > n points in n-dimensional Euclidean space. How many parallel hyperplanes are needed to cover it? In fact, it is easy to prove that every such set can be covered by k-n+1 parallel hyperplanes, but do there exist sets that cannot be covered by fewer parallel hyperplanes? We […]