Friday, February 10, 2012 at 4:00 PM in SAS 4201
Leonardo Mihalcea, Virginia Tech
Curve neighborhoods of Schubert varieties
If X is a Schubert variety in a flag manifold, its curve
neighborhood is defined to be the union of the rational curves of a
fixed degree passing through X. It turns out that this is also a
Schubert variety, and I will explain how to identify it explicitly in
terms of the combinatorics of the Weyl group and of the associated
(nil-)Hecke product. If time remains, I will also show how this yields
a new, natural proof of the Chevalley formula in the quantum
cohomology of flag manifolds. This is joint work with A. Buch and uses
previous results joint with A. Buch, P.E. Chaput and N. Perrin.Friday, February 24, 2012 at 4:00 PM in SAS 4201
Amassa Fauntleroy, NC State
TBAFriday, March 16, 2012 at 4:00 PM in SAS 4201
Andrew Linshaw, Brandeis University
TBAFriday, April 20, 2012 at 4:00 PM in SAS 4201
Craig Bauer, NSA/York College
A Detailed Look at How the Nazi Enigma Ciphers Were Broken Along with the Historical Background and Impact
The talk begins with a demonstration of an Enigma cipher machine and an explanation of how it works. Then the manner in which a small team of Polish mathematicians cracked these ciphers is given in complete mathematical detail (mostly abstract algebra). The important contributions made by the French, British, and even some Germans (!) is covered. Historical context is provided throughout and the impact the decipherments made in shortening the war and saving lives is presented. A tremendous amount will be packed into this lecture, making the pace of a blitzkrieg look leisurely by comparison, but a complete set of notes will be provided to all attendees for future reference!
Speaker bio:
Craig Bauer earned his PhD in mathematics from N. C. State in 1999. He considers N.C. State to be one of the best choices he ever made and remembers many of his professors with great fondness. Craig is presently on a leave of absence from York College of Pennsylvania (where he's an associate professor of mathematics) to serve as the Scholar-in-Residence at the National Security Agency's Center for Cryptologic History. He also serves as the editor-in-chief of Cryptologia, a quarterly journal devoted to all aspects of cryptology.Friday, April 27, 2012 at 4:00 PM in SAS 4201
Drew Armstrong, University of Miami
TBA
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Seminar Organizers: Bojko Bakalov and Alex Fink