Mumford-Tate groups arise as the natural symmetry groups of Hodge structures and their variations. I describe recent work with Matt Kerr on computing the Mumford-Tate group of the Kato-Usui boundary components of a degeneration of Hodge structure.

In 1990, Candelas, de la Ossa, Green, and Parkes used the then-new technique of mirror symmetry to predict the number of rational curves of each fixed degree on a quintic threefold. The techniques used in the prediction were subsequently understood in Hodge-theoretic terms: the predictions are encoded in a power-series expansion of a quantity which describes the variation of Hodge structures, and in particular this power-series expansion is calculated from the periods of the holomorphic three-form on the quintic, which satisfy the Picard-- Fuchs differential equation. In 2006, Johannes Walcher made an analogous prediction for the number of holomorphic disks on the complexification of a real quintic threefold whose boundaries lie on the real quintic, in each fixed relative homology class. (The predictions were subsequently verified by Pandharipande, Solomon, and Walcher.) This talk will report on recent joint work of Walcher and the speaker which gives the Hodge- theoretic context for Walcher's predictions. The crucial physical quantity "domain wall tension" is interpreted as a Poincar\'e normal function, that is, a holomorphic section of the bundle of Griffiths intermediate Jacobians. And the periods are generalized to period integrals of the holomorphic three-form over appropriate 3-chains (not necessarily closed), which leads to a generalization of the Picard--Fuchs equations.

If X is a Grassmannian (or an arbitrary homogeneous space) the 3-point, genus 0, Gromov-Witten invariants count rational curves of degree d satisfying certain incidence conditions - if this number is expected to be finite. If the number is infinite, Givental and Lee defined the K-theoretic Gromov-Witten invariants, which compute the sheaf Euler characteristic of the space of rational curves in question, embedded in Kontsevich's moduli space of stable maps. The resulting quantum cohomology theory - the quantum K-theory algebra - encodes the associativity relations satisfied by the K-theoretic Gromov-Witten invariants. In joint work with Anders Buch, we shown that the (equivariant) K-theoretic Gromov-Witten invariants for Grassmannians are equal to structure constants of the ordinary (equivariant) K-theory of certain two-step flag manifolds. We therefore extended - and also reproved - the "quantum=classical" phenomenon earlier discovered by Buch-Kresch-Tamvakis in the case of the usual Gromov-Witten invariants. Further, we obtained a Pieri and a Giambelli rule, which yield an effective algorithm to multiply any two classes in the quantum K algebra.

NOTE SEMINAR TIME: NOON!! Abstract: Let p be a prime number, F a field containing a primitive pth root of unity, and E/F a cyclic extension of degree p, with Galois group G. Let G_E be the absolute Galois group of E. The cohomology groups H^i(E,Fp)=Hî(G_E,Fp) possess a natural structure as FpG-modules and decompose into direct sums of indecomposables. In the 1960s Boreviè and Faddeev gave decompositions of E^*/E^*p -- the case i=1 -- for local fields. We describe the case i=1 for arbitrary fields, and then, using the Bloch-Kato Conjecture, we also determine the case i>1. No small surprise arises from the fact that there exist indecomposable FpG-modules which never appear in these module decompositions. We give several consequences of these results, notably a generalization of the Schreier formula for G_E, connections with Demu¹kin groups, and new families of pro-p-groups that cannot be realized as absolute Galois groups. These results have been obtained in collaboration with D. Benson, J. Labute, N. Lemire, and J. Mináè.

On a nonnormal variety, the limit of a family of line bundles is not always a line bundle. What is the limit? I will present an answer to this question and give some applications. If time permits, I will discuss connections with Néron models, autoduality, and recent work of R. Hartshorne and C. Polini.

In a seminal Inventiones 1976 paper, Hirzebruch and Zagier produced a set of cycles on certain Hilbert modular surfaces whose intersection numbers are the Fourier coefficients of elliptic modular forms with nebentypus. Their result can be viewed as a geometric manifestation of the Naganuma lift from elliptic modular forms to Hilbert modular forms. We discuss a general analogue of this result where the real quadratic extension is replaced by an arbitrary quadratic extension of totally real fields. Our result can be viewed as a geometric manifestation of quadratic base change for GL_2 over totally real fields. (joint work with Mark Goresky).

We will give a survey of recent progress on constructing local system over punctured projective lines using techniques from automorphic forms and geometric Langlands. Applications include solutions of particular cases of the inverse Galois problem and existence of motives with exceptional Galois groups.

In certain situations global topology may force singularities. For example, the topology of the Klein bottle forces self-intersections when mapped into 3-space. Any map of the projective plane must have at least cusp singularities when mapped into the plane. The topology of a manifold may force any differential form on it to degenerate at certian points. In a family of vector bundles over a complex curve some must degenerate to a non-stable bundle (in the GIT sense), depending on the topology of the family. In a family of vector bundle maps---arranged according to a directed graph (quiver)---some may be forced to degenerate. In families of linear spaces some have special incidence with some other fixed ones (Schubert calculus). These degenerations are governed by a unified notion in equivariant cohomology, the Thom polynomial of "singularities". In the lecture I will review Thom polynomials, computational strategies (interpolation, localization, Grobner basis), show examples and applications.

We report on joint work with A. Bayer on how one can use wall-crossing techniques to study the birational geometry of a moduli space M of Gieseker-stable sheaves on a K3 surface X. In particular: (--) We will give a "modular interpretation" for all minimal models of M. (--) We will describe the nef cone, the movable cone, and the effective cone of M in terms of the algebraic Mukai lattice of X. (--) We will establish the so called Tyurin/Bogomolov/Hassett-Tschinkel/Huybrechts/Sawon Conjecture on the existence of Lagrangian fibrations on M.

Given a smooth irreducible complex curve $C$, there are several isomorphism invariants one can attach to $C$. One invariant is the genus of $C$, that is, the number of handles in the corresponding Riemann surface. A subtler invariant is the gonality of $C$, that is, the minimal degree of a dominant map from $C$ of $\mathbb{P}^1$. A lower bound for either invariant has diophantine consequences when $C$ can be defined over a number field, but the ability to give non-trivial lower bounds depends on how $C$ is presented. In this talk we will consider a sequence $C_1,C_2,\ldots$ of finite unramified covers of $C$ and give spectral criteria for the gonality of $C_n$ to tend to infinity.

The toric fiber product is a general procedure for gluing two ideals, homogeneous with respect to the same grading, to produce a new homogeneous ideal. Toric fiber products generalize familiar constructions in commutative algebra like adding monomial ideals and the Segre product. We will introduce the construction, discuss its geometrical content, and give an overview over the various preserved properties. Toric fiber products have been applied most successfully to families of ideals parametrized by combinatorial objects like graphs. We will show how to use toric fiber product to prove structural theorems about classes of ideals from algebraic statistics.

In this talk we describe the moduli compactification by stable pairs (also known as KSBA compactification) of a 4-dimensional family of Enriques surfaces, which arise as the $\mathbb{Z}_2^2$-covers of the blow up of $\mathbb{P}^2$ at three general points branched along a configuration of three pairs of lines. The chosen divisor is an appropriate multiple of the ramification locus. Using the theory of stable toric pairs we are able to study the degenerations parametrized by the boundary and its stratification. We relate this compactification to the Baily-Borel compactification of the same family of Enriques surfaces. Part of the boundary of this stable pairs compactification has a toroidal behavior, another part is isomorphic to the Baily-Borel compactification, and what remains is a mixture of these two.

Inspired by Kontsevich's homological mirror symmetry conjecture, I will show how to construct new classes of automorphisms of the bounded derived category of coherent sheaves on a smooth quasi-projective Calabi-Yau variety. Examples will be presented. I will also explain the 'local' character of the picture.