Claremont Topology Seminar

Founded 1989


The Claremont Topology Seminar meets in person on Tuesdays from 3:00-4:30 pm in Estella 2099 in FALL 2024 at the Pomona College Campus of the Claremont Colleges. Estella Laboratory is located on the NE corner of College Avenue and 6th Street. Following the talk we go for coffee/tea in downtown Claremont. Sometimes we meet a little later and then go to dinner. (Look for special times on the calendar.) Click HERE for a map of the Pomona Campus.

Parking on College Avenue is free.


For more information about the Seminar, to suggest speakers, or to volunteer to speak, contact Bahar Acu, Dave Bachman, Sam Nelson, Vin de Silva, or Helen Wong


Spring 2025 Schedule (Upcoming)

special days, times or locations are in purple

Date Speaker Title and Abstract
Tuesday

January 28th

Organizational Meeting

@ CK Tea House (109 Yale Ave)


Fall 2024 Schedule

special days, times or locations are in purple

Date Speaker Title and Abstract
Tuesday

September 3rd

Organizational Meeting
Tuesday

September 10th

Sam Nelson

Claremont McKenna College

Title: Biquandle Module Quiver Representations

Abstract: Biquandle module enhancements are invariants of knots and links generalizing the classical Alexander module invariant. A quiver categorification of these invariants was introduced in 2020. In this work-in-progress (joint with Yewon Joung from Hanyang University in Seoul) we take the next step by defining invariant quiver representations. As an application we obtain new polynomial knot invariants ae decategorifications.

Tuesday

September 17th

Migiwa Sakurai

Shibaura Institute of Technology

Title: Clasp pass moves and arrow polynomials of virtual knots

Abstract: For classical knots, clasp pass moves are closely related to Vassiliev invariants of degree 3. Tsukamoto showed that the values of the Vassiliev invariant of degree 3 induced from the Jones polynomial for two knots differ by 0 or +36/-36, if they are related by a single clasp pass move. For virtual knots, the arrow polynomial is a generalization of the Jones polynomial and induces a Vassiliev invariant of degree 3. We show that the values of the Vassiliev invariant of degree 3 induced from the arrow polynomial of two virtual knots differ by 0 or +2304/-2304, if they are related by a single clasp pass move. We also obtain a lower bound of the distance between virtual knots by clasp pass moves.

Tuesday

September 24th

NO SEMINAR

Tuesday

October 1st

Reginald Anderson

Claremont McKenna College

Title: Presentations of derived categories

Abstract: A modification of the cellular resolution of the diagonal given by Bayer-Popescu-Sturmfels gives a virtual resolution of the diagonal for smooth projective toric varieties and toric Deligne-Mumford stacks which are a global quotient of a smooth projective variety by a finite abelian group. In the past year, Hanlon-Hicks-Lazarev gave a minimal resolution of the diagonal for toric subvarieties of smooth projective toric varieties. We give implications for exceptional collections on smooth projective toric Fano varieties in dimensions 1-4. This is joint work with CMC undergrads Justin Son, Hill Zhang, and Jumari Querimit-Ramirez.

Tuesday

October 8th

NO SEMINAR

Tuesday

October 15th

No Meeting Fall Break
Tuesday

October 22nd

Will Hoffer

UC Riverside

Title: Tube Formulae for Fractal Snowflakes

Abstract: Fractals like the von Koch snowflake have rough boundaries, often having nowhere defined tangent lines/spaces. However, there is a tool useful for probing the edges of such fractals: tubular neighborhoods. In this talk, we'll introduce the theory of fractal tube formulae which describe the volumes of such tubular neighborhoods, illustrating through our recent work on generalized fractal snowflakes. In the process, we'll touch on the theory of complex dimensions and tubular zeta functions that capture the (multiplicative) oscillations appearing in the geometry of fractals.

Tuesday

October 29th

Orsola Capovilla-Searle

UC Davis

Title: Exact Lagrangian fillings of Legendrian links

Abstract: An important problem in contact topology is to understand Legendrian submanifolds; these submanifolds are always tangent to the plane field given by the contact structure. Legendrian links arise as wavefronts in optics, and can sometimes be used to distinguish contact structures. Legendrian links can also arise as the boundary of exact Lagrangian surfaces in the standard symplectic 4-ball which are called fillings of the link. In the last seven years, our understanding of the moduli space of fillings for various families of Legendrians has greatly improved thanks to tools from sheaf theory, Floer theory and cluster algebras. I will talk about recent work establishing connections between fillings and Newton polytopes, as well as applications to higher dimensional Legendrian submanifolds and non-orientable fillings.

Tuesday

November 5th

Vijay Higgins

UCLA

Title: Webs and skein algebras

Abstract: The Jones polynomial of a link can be computed diagrammatically by using skein relations which encode the representation theory of SL(2). By considering the vector space spanned by links drawn on a surface and imposing these skein relations, we obtain an algebra known as the Kauffman bracket skein algebra of the surface. These algebras have been studied by many authors including F. Bonahon and H. Wong, and much is known about their structure. Replacing SL(2) by SL(3) or any other higher rank Lie group gives rise to a new skein algebra involving not only links but also certain graphs called webs. In this talk, we will discuss some of the complications involved with studying skein algebras built from webs on surfaces and then present ways of getting around them. Some of this work is joint with F. Bonahon.

Tuesday

November 12th

Claudio Gomez-Gonzales

Carleton College - UC Irvine

Title: How hard could it be? A tour of resolvent degree

Abstract: Solving algebraic equations are among the oldest problems in mathematics. In this talk, we offer a concrete, visual, and historical introduction to resolvent degree (RD), an invariant that aspires to quantify just how hard these problems are. The lineage of this theory includes the origins of topology, Klein's "hypergalois" program, and centuries-old exploits in reducing numbers of coefficients, which dare us to push beyond the solvable/unsolvable dichotomy. We will build towards the notion of versality central to Klein's vision, with a nod to our general framework implemented in joint work with Alexander Sutherland and Jesse Wolfson, that permits us to address resolvent questions via classical invariant theory. We will conclude by reflecting on the past and future of resolvent problems, along with what we do and don't know about RD. This talk is designed to be accessible for undergraduates-let's do some math!

Tuesday

November 19th

Heather Lee Title: Some examples of homological mirror symmetry

Abstract: Mirror symmetry is a duality phenomenon between symplectic geometry and complex geometry. The homological mirror symmetry (HMS) conjecture was originally formulated by M. Kontsevich in 1994 to fully capture this phenomenon for mirror pairs of compact Calabi-Yau manifolds. Since then, it has been extended to cover a much wider range of manifolds. For example, in 2 real dimensions, among the compact Riemann surfaces, the torus is Calabi-Yau, the sphere is Fano, and all others are of general type; in addition, there are punctured Riemann surfaces which are not compact. In this talk, I will present a few illustrative examples of HMS, including ones worked out by others and from my own research.

Tuesday

November 26th

No Meeting Thanksgiving Week
Tuesday

December 3rd

Rhea Bakshi

University of California Santa Barbara

Title: TBA

Abstract: TBA


Archived Schedules

2023-2024

2022-2023

2018-2019

2017-2018

2016-2017

2015-2016

2014-2015

2013-2014

2012-2013

2011-2012

2010-2011

2009-2010

2008-2009

2007-2008

2006-2007

2005-2006

2004-2005

2003-2004


This site is maintained by Bahar Acu who received the (34yo) baton from Jim Hoste.