Mathematical Physics

The Alday-Gaiotto-Tachikawa correspondence connects gauge theory on a fourfold with conformal field theory. We are interested in a certain algebro-geometric incarnation of this framework, where the fourfold is an algebraic surface and instantons/differential geometry are replaced with sheaves/algebraic geometry. In this talk, we will present a certain approach to AGT that yields partial results for quite general surfaces, and ask questions about what still needs to be done to state and prove the full correspondence in the language of algebraic geometry.

Quantized lattices, or q-lattices, appear naturally through categorification constructions (for example from zigzag-algebras), but they haven't been studied from a lattice theory point of view. After establishing the necessary background, we'll explain the q-versions of various lattice theory concepts illustrated with examples from combinatorics and graph theory, and we'll list a number of open problems.

Skew Howe duality is based on a very simple observation: the set of n by m matrices has commuting action of SL_n and SL_m.  We can use this observation to study morphisms of GL_m representations using GL_n.  This perspective has proven very useful in recent years for studying quantum knot invariants and their categorifications.  I will survey work in this direction from the last 10 years, including more recent developments concerning annular skew Howe duality and annular knot invariants.