Previous Special Year Seminar

Feb
26
2026

Special Year Research Seminar

Tori in Positive Characteristic
1:00pm|Simonyi 101

I will discuss questions pertaining to geometric unlikely intersections and transcendence in the setting of torii in positive characteristic. This is based on work in progress joint with Anup Dixit, Philip Engel, and Ruofan Jiang. 

Feb
25
2026

Special Year Learning Seminar

A Vanishing Theorem for O-minimal Curves
Spencer Dembner
2:00pm|Simonyi 101

Every o-minimal structure determines a collection of "tame" or "definable" subsets of $bbR^n$. We can then ask about the fragment of complex geometry present in the structure: Which holomorphic functions are definable, and which spaces are cut out...

Feb
19
2026

Special Year Research Seminar

Bi-\bar{Q}-structure on Shimura Varieties and Quadratic Relations Between CM Period
1:00pm|Simonyi 101

In this talk I will introduce a bi-\bar{Q}-structure on Shimura varieties, propose a hyperbolic analytic subspace conjecture (analogue of Wüstholz’s analytic subgroup theorem in this context), and explain its consequence on quadratic relations...

Feb
18
2026

Special Year Learning Seminar

On Common Roots of Legendre Polynomials
Dan Mangoubi
2:00pm|Simonyi 101

In 2011 Bourgain and Rudnick showed that if $\gamma$ is a curve of non-vanishing curvature on the 2d standard flat torus, then there are no Laplace eigenfunctions of arbitrarily large eigenvalues containing $\gamma$ in their nodal set. We show that...

Feb
12
2026

Special Year Research Seminar

Log-Noetherian Functions
1:00pm|Simonyi 101

I'll talk about the o-minimal structures R_LN and R_{LN,exp} where one has an effective form of the finiteness property of o-minimality. Unlike the more classical structure of Pfaffian function, R_{LN,exp} contains the period integrals for aribtrary...

Feb
05
2026

Special Year Research Seminar

Modularity of Special Cycles II
1:00pm|Simonyi 101

Since the work of Jacobi and Siegel, it is well known that Theta series of quadratic lattices produce modular forms. In a vast generalization, Kudla and Millson have proved that the generating series of special cycles in orthogonal and unitary...

Jan
29
2026

Special Year Research Seminar

Modularity of Special Cycles I
1:00pm|Simonyi 101

Since the work of Jacobi and Siegel, it is well known that Theta series of quadratic lattices produce modular forms. In a vast generalization, Kudla and Millson have proved that the generating series of special cycles in orthogonal and unitary...

Dec
11
2025

Special Year Research Seminar

Typical and Atypical Intersections: Geometry, Dynamics, and Applications
1:00pm|Simonyi 101

Many geometric spaces carry natural collections of special submanifolds that encode their internal symmetries. Examples include abelian varieties and their sub-abelian varieties, locally symmetric spaces with their totally geodesic subspaces, period...

Dec
04
2025

Special Year Research Seminar

Typical and Atypical Intersections: Geometry, Dynamics, and Applications
1:00pm|Simonyi 101

Many geometric spaces carry natural collections of special submanifolds that encode their internal symmetries. Examples include abelian varieties and their sub-abelian varieties, locally symmetric spaces with their totally geodesic subspaces, period...

Dec
03
2025

Special Year Learning Seminar

Logarithmic Geometry and Hodge Theory
Michael Barz
2:00pm|Simonyi 101

Ben Bakker explained to us how to construct moduli spaces of polarized Hodge structures, and then produced period maps associated to families of smooth projective varieties. However, in practice one often encounters a family of smooth varieties...