Moduli spaces of sheaves and an effective version of Merkurjev's theorem -- Max Lieblich, April 30, 2010

I will describe some asymptotic geometry of the moduli space of twisted vector bundles with parabolic structure and use it to prove a general result on division algebras over function fields of surfaces over finite fields that, in a special case, gives an effective form of Merkurjev's theorem on the 2-torsion in the Brauer group. This talk is not intended for experts; I will explain everything I'm talking about!