Columbia Mathematics Department Colloquium
Representation theory of symplectic singularities
by
Ben Webster
Northeastern University
Abstract:
Since they were introduced about 2 decades ago, symplectic singularities have shown
themselves to be a remarkable branch of algebraic geometry. They are much nicer in many ways than arbitrary singularities, but still have a lot of interesting nooks and crannies.
I'll talk about these varieties from a representation theorist's perspective. This might sound like a strange direction, but remember, any interesting symplectic structure is likely to be the classical limit of an equally interesting non-commutative structure, whose representation theory we can study. While this field is still in its infancy, it includes a lot of well-known examples like universal enveloping algebras and Cherednik algebras, and has led a lot of interesting places, including to categorified knot invariants and a conjectured duality between pairs of symplectic singularities. I'll give a taste of these results and try to indicate some interesting
future directions.
themselves to be a remarkable branch of algebraic geometry. They are much nicer in many ways than arbitrary singularities, but still have a lot of interesting nooks and crannies.
I'll talk about these varieties from a representation theorist's perspective. This might sound like a strange direction, but remember, any interesting symplectic structure is likely to be the classical limit of an equally interesting non-commutative structure, whose representation theory we can study. While this field is still in its infancy, it includes a lot of well-known examples like universal enveloping algebras and Cherednik algebras, and has led a lot of interesting places, including to categorified knot invariants and a conjectured duality between pairs of symplectic singularities. I'll give a taste of these results and try to indicate some interesting
future directions.