Organizer: Lilit Martirosyan
Fall 2025 Semester
August 29, 2025 at 3:30pm in ST2006
Speaker: Lilit Martirosyan (UNCW)
Title: Vertex algebras from the point of view of Isaac Newton.
Abstract: Vertex operator algebras (VOAs) are central objects in modern mathematics and mathematical physics, with connections to number theory, representation theory, and conformal field theory. In this lecture, I will introduce VOAs through Isaac Newton’s method of forward differences, showing how this elementary tool provides a natural doorway into the formal calculus underlying vertex algebras. Along the way, I will highlight how Newton’s perspective unexpectedly echoes modern algebraic structures, and how these ideas touch on themes that appear in current research. The talk will be accessible to graduate students and advanced undergraduates, with no prior background in VOAs assumed.
September 5, 2025 at 3:30pm in ST2006
Speaker: Corey Jones (NC State)
Title: Exotic fiber functors on Rep(SLn) in positive characteristic
Abstract: A fiber functor is an embedding of a tensor category into vector spaces. For representation categories of groups or Hopf algebras, the canonical forgetful functors are the main examples, but truly exotic examples are hard to come by. In this talk we will introduce a family of exotic fiber functors on the category of representations of SLn in positive characteristic, arising from combinatorial objects called triangle presentations associated to Bruhat-Tits buildings.
October 3, 2025 at 3:30pm in ST2006
Speaker: Elizabeth Jurisich (College of Charlston)
Title: Defining Hecke-Adams operators on certain group
module pairs.
Abstract: Motivated by the special case of the Monstrous Moonshine example G= M, V=V^♮we define Hecke-Adams operators on suitable pairs of a group G and graded module V ∈ R(G)[q] with modular Thompson series characters. These operators
form a Hecke algebra. This is a work in progress.
October 24, 2025 at 3:30pm in ST2006
Speaker: Darlayne Addabbo (SUNY Polytechnic Institute)
Title:
Abstract: