Speaker: 

Daniel Litt

Institution: 

Stanford

Time: 

Thursday, November 8, 2012 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm

Location: 

Rowland Hall 440R

There are beautiful and unexpected connections between algebraic
topology, number theory, and algebraic geometry, arising from the study of
the configuration space of (not necessarily distinct) points on a variety.
In particular, there is a relationship between the Dold-Thom theorem, the
analytic class number formula, and the "motivic stabilization of symmetric
powers" conjecture of Ravi Vakil and Melanie Matchett Wood. I'll discuss
several ideas and open conjectures surrounding these connections, and
describe the proof of one of these conjectures--a Hodge-theoretic
obstruction to the stabilization of symmetric powers--in the case of curves
and algebraic surfaces. Everything in the talk will be defined from
scratch, and should be quite accessible.