VIRGINIA TECH GEOMETRY & TOPOLOGY SEMINAR (FALL 2025)

This seminar features talks surrounding geometry and topology (loosely-defined) and welcomes all undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate participants. All are welcome to join.

If you are interested in giving a talk/demonstration or would like to invite a guest speaker, please contact the organizers: Michael Schultz, Varun Scarlett, or Dan Douglas.

MEETING INFORMATION

We typically meet Tuesdays at 4-5pm in McBryde Hall 563 (unless otherwise announced; some talks will be in Kelly Hall 310). Talks are expected to be in-person, and any virtual talks will be marked explicitly in the title/abstract below.

SCHEDULE

09 Dec

TBA

02 Dec

TBA

25 Nov
No Seminar (Holiday)

18 Nov

TBA

11 Nov
Ezra Getzler
Northwestern

TBA

04 Nov
Reese Lance
UNC

TBA

28 Oct
Haihan Wu
JHU

TBA

21 Oct

TBA

14 Oct

TBA

07 Oct

TBA

30 Sep
Kevin Summers
VT

TBA

23 Sep
William Mahaney
VT

A pair of elliptic curves $E_1, E_2$ over a field $k$ are $n$-isogenous if there exists a non-constant rational map $\phi: E_1 \to E_2$ defined over the algebraic closure $\overline{k}$ of degree $n$ that preserves the group structure. *Usually* there is zero or one $n$-isogenies between two elliptic curves, but this is not always the case. The modular polynomial $\Phi_{n}(X,Y) \in \mathbb{Z}[X,Y]$ of level $n$ is a bivariate symmetric polynomial $\Phi_n(X, Y) \in \mathbb{Z}[X, Y]$ whose $k$-roots $(j_1, j_2)$ correspond to pairs of $n$-isogenous elliptic curves over $\overline{k}$ with $j$-invariants $j_1, j_2$. The modular curve $X_0(n)$ is a smooth projective curve which is a coarse moduli space for pairs of $n$-isogenous elliptic curves and is birationally equivalent to the affine curve defined by $\Phi_n(X, Y) = 0$. The singular points of $\Phi_n(X,Y)=0$ correspond to elliptic curves with more than one $n$-isogeny between them, and by resolving the singularity we can recover the full set of $n$-isogenies. In this talk we give background on $\Phi_n$ and $ X_0(n)$ and demonstrate how to recover isogenies from singular points of $\Phi_n(X,Y)$.

16 Sep
Chi Hong Chow
VT

Fano mirror symmetry is a duality between Fano manifolds and Landau-Ginzburg models. Predictions include: Certain D-modules associated with given mirror pairs are isomorphic, and certain integral structures on their spaces of flat sections correspond to each other. I will discuss this picture using the projective line. Then I describe the current progress for a larger class of Fano manifolds called flag varieties.



Past talk information can be found here.