Previous Special Year Seminar

Jun
12
2026

Special Year Learning Seminar

Algebraic Hodge Generic Points are Dense
2:00pm|Simonyi 101

Let $f: X \to S$ be a quasi-projective family of varieties defined over $\overline{\mathbb{Q}} \subset \mathbb{C}$. We show that the points of $S(\overline{\mathbb{Q}})$ that are Hodge generic for the variation of Hodge structures associated to $f$...

May
28
2026

Special Year Research Seminar

Multisummability Relative to Certain Quasianalytic Classes
Patrick Speissegger
1:00pm|Simonyi 101

Using Tougeron’s characterization of multisummable (in the positive real directions) series, the latter can be viewed as infinite series of convergent power series with radii of convergence shrinking to 0. In joint work with Jean-Philippe Rolin and...

May
06
2026

Special Year Learning Seminar

Intersections and the Bezout Range
2:00pm|Simonyi 101

Let A be a simple abelian variety, and X and Y be two subvarieties. We say X and Y are in the Bezout range if \dim X + \dim Y >= \dim A, and outside of the Bezout range otherwise. It is known that two varieties in the Bezout range in A always...

Apr
23
2026

Special Year Research Seminar

On the Universality of Motivic Cohomology
1:00pm|Simonyi 101

A category of motives is an axiomatic framework in which several cohomology theories from algebraic geometry are represented. While Morel and Voevodsky's classical framework of motivic homotopy theory focused on $A^1$-invariant cohomology theories...

Apr
15
2026

Special Year Learning Seminar

Lang-Trotter Phenomena and Unlikely Intersections
2:00pm|Simonyi 101

I will discuss how the Lang–Trotter conjecture for pairs of elliptic curves implies new cases of the Zilber–Pink conjecture for curves in $\mathcal{A}_3$. Unlike previous results for curves in $\mathcal{A}_g$, our result does not rely on any...

Apr
08
2026

Special Year Learning Seminar

On a Problem of Polya and Some of its Evolutions
Umberto Zannier
2:00pm|Simonyi 101

Around 1921 Polya asked about the algebraicity of the indefinite integral of an algebraic function, in terms of the integrality of the coefficients in a power-series expansion. Polya nicely answered the special case of rational functions, using...

Mar
26
2026

Special Year Research Seminar

The Pila-Zannier Strategy for Drinfeld Modules
Francesco Maria Saettone
1:00pm|Simonyi 101

The Pila–Zannier strategy has proved to be a particularly fruitful approach: first applied to reprove the Manin–Mumford conjecture, it was later exploited decisively in proofs of the André–Oort conjecture. Crucially relying on a recent counting...

Mar
19
2026

Special Year Research Seminar

Tame Geometry in Quantum Field Theory and Gravity
Thomas Grimm
1:00pm|Simonyi 101

Ideas from tame geometry have recently begun to find their way into quantum field theory and string theory, suggesting that consistent effective theories and their observables may admit definable descriptions of finite complexity. In this talk I...

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...